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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




THE TWO PORTRAITS. 
The Safe Compass . frontispiece. 



THE SAFE COMPASS, 



HOW IT POINTS. 



BY THE 



EEY. EIOHAED HEWTOff, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF " KILLS FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE," " THE BEST 

THINGS," "KING'S HIGHWAY," "GIANTS, AND HOW 

TO FIGHT THEM," ETC. 




NEW YORK : 
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 



No. 530 BROADWAY 
1863. 




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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18C3, 

By ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for tho 
Southern District of the State of New York. 



2 ^ *> 



EDWARD O. JENKINS , 

printer, 
No. 20 Noeth William St. 



n 



CONTENTS 

L 

Reasons for Resisting the Enticements of Sinners,.. . . 9 
" If sinners entice thee, consent thou not." — Prov. i. 10 

II. 

Religion and Rubies Compared, 39 

" She is more precious than rubies." — Prov. iii. 15. 

m. 

Lessons from the Ant, 71 

" Go to the ant . . . consider her ways, and be wise." 

Proverbs vi. 6. 

IV. 

The Reward of Sowing Righteousness, 105 

" To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure 
reward." — Proverbs xi. 18. 

Y. 
The Hard Wat, 141 

"The way of transgressors is hard." — Prov. xiii. 15. 

(iii) 



IV CONTENTS. 

VI. 

The Sunday-school Garden, 175 

" I am come into my garden." — Canticles v. 1. 

VII. 

Wats of Doing Good, 209 

"Jesus . . . went about doing good." — Acts x. 38. 

VIII. 

The Blessedness of Giving, 237 

"Jesus . . . said, It is more blessed to give than to 
receive." — Acts xx. 35. 

IX. 

Gathering the Fragments : Time and Knowledge 265 

"Gather up the fragments . , . that nothing be lost." 

John vi. 12. 

X. 

Gathering the Fragments : Money and Usefulness, . . . 293 

" Gather up the fragments . . . that nothing be lost." 

John vi. 12. 



PREFACE. 

"What a curious thing a compass is ! How strange- 
ly the little needle trembles on the point of the piece 
of wire which supports it! How wonderful it is to 
see that needle always pointing to the North ! Who 
can explain how it is that it always does so ? God 
made it to be always pointing in one direction, and 
it does just what he wants it to do. This is all we 
know about it. If you ask a learned man what it is 
which makes the needle of the compass always point 
to the North, he will tell you it is magnetism. But, 
if you ask him what magnetism is, or how it pro- 
duces this effect upon the needle, he can not tell you. 

Nobody can explain this. But the compass is not 
the less useful because none can explain the way in 
which the needle acts. The compass is one of the 
most useful things we have. The sailor never could 
find his way over the sea without it. And those who 
have to travel over great deserts, or through coun- 
tries in which there are no roads, always need a com- 
pass, to show them the direction in which they 
should go. 

And, in going through this world, we are just in 

(v) 



VI PREFACE. 

this position. The world is like a great desert ; or 
like a country, not indeed without any roads, but full 
of roads leading in the wrong direction. There is 
only one direction for us to go in, if we wish to pass 
safely through the world, and reach, at last, that 
blessed home which God has prepared for his loving 
children. And, if we desire always to know the 
direction in which to go, in order to reach that home, 
we must have a compass to take with us in our 
journey through the world. God has given us the 
Bible to be this Safe Compass. It is always pointing 
towards heaven. And, as it points in the right direc- 
tion, it is always saying to us, " This is the way, walk 
ye in it." 

Unless we take this compass, and follow its point- 
ings, we can not get to heaven. The design of this 
little book is to aid those who are setting out on the 
great journey of life to make a right use of the com- 
pass God has given us. The earnest prayer of the 
writer is that all his young friends, who read these 
pages, may follow the pointings of this Safe Compass, 
and reach, at last, that blessed world, to which it will 
surely lead them. 



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" If sinners entice thee, consent thou not." — Prov. i. 10. 



"If sinners entice thee, consent thou not." — Prov. i. 10. 

If I should ask you. Who are meant by sin- 
ners ? you would, perhaps, give me a good many 
answers, and of different kinds. One would 
say, sinners are persons that curse and swear. 
Another would say, thieves and robbers are 
meant by sinners. Another would say murder- 
ers are sinners. Another would say, sinners 
means those who get drunk and break the Sab- 
bath. And so on. All these answers would 
be correct, for it is true that all the different 
persons named are sinners. But none of these 
would be the proper answer, or the best answer 
to give to the question — who are meant by 
sinners? When God speaks about sinners in 
the Bible, He does not mean only those persons 
who swear, or steal, or commit murder, or do 
such dreadful things, but He means all persons 
tvho are not rue Christians. All men and 

9 



10 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

women, all boys and girls whose hearts have 
not been changed, and who do not love the 
Saviour, are sinners in God's sight. Whenever 
we read about "sinners" in the Bible, these 
are the persons intended. This is the mean- 
ing of the word " sinners " in our text. Do 
you know who wrote the book of Proverbs ? 
Solomon. He was the great king of Israel, 
the wisest man, excepting our blessed Saviour, 
who ever lived. Now let us see what Solo- 
mon speaks of sinners as doing in our text. 
He says, " If sinners entice thee." What does 
it mean to entice a person ? It means to per- 
suade, or coax him to commit sin, or to do 
something wrong. If you are trying to get a 
person to do right, we never call it enticing 
him. It is only when people are trying to 
make others do wrong, that we use the word 
entice. 

The meaning of the text then, is, — if persons 
who are not Christians, who don't love Jesus, — 
try to persuade you to do wrong, don't mind 
them. For instance — suppose you are on your 
way to Sunday-school some bright, beautiful 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 11 

Sunday morning. At the corner of the street 
you meet some young friends. One of them 
says to you, "Good morning, John, where are 
you going ?" You answer, " I am going to 
Sunday-school. Where are you going ?" He 
says — 

" Oh, we're going out to spend the day at 
Fairmount Park. We've got our dinner in 
that basket. You'd better come along, John, 
we're going to have lots of fun." Now what 
would your friend be doing ? He would be a 
sinner enticing you to break the fourth com- 
mandment. 

Suppose you are spending your summer vaca- 
tion. One fine afternoon you go out to play in 
the woods. Adjoining the woods is an apple 
orchard. Before you go, your mother says to 
you, " Well, Johnny, I hope you'll have a nice 
time in the woods. But, remember, you are 
not to go into the orchard, on any account, or 
to take any of the fruit there. Do you hear ?" 

" Yes, ma'am." 

But it's a warm afternoon. After a while 
some of the boys start for the orchard, and be- 



12 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

gin eating the apples. But you remember what 
your mother said, and go on with your play. 
Presently, one of the boys calls out to you : 
" Halloo, John, don't you want some apples ?" 
" No ;" you answer, very promptly : " Mother 
told me not to take any ; and I don't in- 
tend to." 

" We're not going to climb up the trees," he 
says, " but only to take some of these lying on 
the ground. It won't do any harm to take 
these. They are so ripe and juicy ! Just come 
over and taste them." 

What would that boy be doing ? He would 
be a sinner enticing you to break the fifth com- 
mandment, by disobeying your mother. And 
so, whenever anybody tries to persuade you to 
commit sin ; to lie, or swear, or break the Sab- 
bath, or disobey your parents, or to do any- 
thing, no matter what, which the Bible says 
you must not do, that person is a sinner trying 
to entice you. And here, in the text, God tells 
you what to do, in all such cases. He says, 
" If sinners entice thee, consent thou not." 
Don't yield to their enticements. Don't let 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 13 

them persuade you to join them in sin. This is 
the great lesson we should learn from our 
text. 

I pray God to write this text on every heart 
here this afternoon. Oh, how many sorrows 
and troubles it will save you from, if you will 
only remember this text, and mind it, when 
" sinners entice' 7 you ! 

I wish now to speak of three reasons why we 
should not consent, when sinners entice us. 

The first reason is, because, when we begin to 
sin. it's hard to stop. 

There was a boy whose name was Frank. 
He was in the orchard on the side of a hill. 
His father was in the yard, adjoining the 
orchard, at the foot of the hill. He called to 
him, " Frank, come here." 

" Yes, sir," said Frank, and started to run at 
full speed down the hill. He ran ever so far 
past his father, towards the house. 

" Frank, come here, I say ; didn't you hear 
me call ?" asked his father. 

" Yes, sir," said Frank. 

" Well, then, what made you run past me ?" 



14 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

" Oh I" said Frank, " T got agoing and couldn't 
stop." 

This is just the way in which people run into 
sin : " Sinners entice them/' and they consent. 
" They get agoing and can't stop." 

" I went a short time ago," said a gentleman 
to a friend, " to the jail, to see a young man 
who had once been a Sunday-school scholar. 
The keeper took a large bunch of keys, and 
led us through the long, gloomy halls, unlock- 
ing one door after another, until at length he 
opened the door of the room in which sat the 
young man we had come to see. The walls of 
the room were of coarse stone, the floor of thick 
plank, and before the windows were strong- 
iron bars. 

Without, all was beautiful : the green fields, 
the sweet flowers, and the siuging birds were 
as lovely as ever, but this young man could 
enjoy none of them ; no, never could he look 
on them again, for he was condemned to death. 
He had killed a man, and now he himself was 
to die. Think of it, only twenty years old, and 
vet a murderer ! 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 15 

I sat down beside hini and talked with him, 
" Oh !" said he, as the tears rolled down his 
cheeks, " to think that I should come to this ! 
I didn't mean to do it, but I was drunk ; then 
I got angry, and before I knew what I was 
about, I killed him. Oh, if I had only minded 
my mother, and listened to my Sunday-school 
teacher, I never should have come to this ; I 
never should have been here !" 

This young man " got agoing and couldn't 
stop." When " sinners enticed him" to break 
the Sabbath, to disobey his mother, to drink 
and gamble, he ought not to have consented. 
It would have been easy for him to take his 
stand then ; but when he once began to sin, 
like a stone thrown down the side of a moun- 
tain, he found it hard to stop. 

As the gentleman left him, he said : " Will 
you pray for me, sir ? And oh ! tell boys every- 
where to mind their mothers, and keep away 
from bad companions." 

Think of this young man whenever you read 
or hear the words of the text : " If sinners en- 
tice thee, consent thou not." 



16 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

The Arabs have a fable about The Miller and 
the Camel, which illustrates, very well, the im- 
portance of minding this text. The fable says, 
that one day in winter, the miller was sleeping 
in his house, when he was awakened by a 
noise. On looking up he saw a camel who 
had thrust his nose through the window of the 
room. 

" It's very cold out here," said the camel ; 
" please let me just put my nose into your room 
to get a little warmed." "Very well," said 
the miller. After a while the camel asked 
leave to put his neck in ; and then he begged 
to have his forefeet in the room ; and so he 
kept on, by little and little, until at last he 
crowded in his whole body. 

Then he began to walk about the room, and 
knock things over, and do just as he pleased. 
The miller soon found him so rude and trouble- 
some that the room was not large enough for 
them both. He began to complain to the camel 
of the trouble he was giving him, and told him 
to go out. " If you don't like the room, you 
can leave it, whenever you choose," said the 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 17 

camel ; " as for myself, I am very comfortable, 
and intend to stay where I am." 

This is just the way it is with sin. It comes 
knocking at our hearts, and begs for entrance 
a little way. As the old proverb says, " if you 
give it an inch, it will take an ell." It goes 
on increasing its power, step by step, until it 
becomes master in the soul. It would have 
been easy enough for the miller to have kept 
the camel out when he only had his nose in 
the window ; but after he got his whole body 
into the room, it was hard work to get him 
out. So when sin, or sinners entice us, we 
should not consent. We should guard against 
the first beginning of it. Don't let its nose get 
in at the window, and then its body will never 
get into the room. The Bible tells us to flee 
from the appearance of eviL Let us resolve 
to do this ; and above all, let us pray for the 
help of the Holy Spirit, that by his grace we 
may be able to " keep our hearts with all dili- 
gence," and guard against the entrance of any- 
thing that may, as one of our Collects says, 
" assault or hurt the soul." " If sinners entice 



18 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

thee, consent thou not." The first reason why 
we should not consent, is, that token vje begin to 
sin it's hard to stop. 

But the second reason, why we ought not to 
consent to sin, is, because it is dangekous. 

Here is a long train of cars on a railway. 
They are crowded with passengers, and are 
flying pleasantly along at full speed. Now 
they come to where the track goes along near 
a high bank. Here some wicked person has 
placed a heavy log of wood across the track. 
The train comes thundering on. The engineer 
does not see the log. Presently the engine 
comes up against it with a tremendous crash. 
It is thrown off the track. It drags the train 
after it. One after another the cars roll down 
the bank. Many of them are broken to pieces. 
A dreadful scene of confusion follows. Ten 
or fifteen of the passengers are killed, and 
great numbers of them wounded. All this 
loss and misery is produced by the log that 
was laid across that track. Was it not a 
very dangerous thing to place that log 
there ? Yes ; for it threw that train of 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 19 

cars off the track and occasioned all that 
mischief. 

Now, sin is dangerous in just the same way. 
God's commandments are the path of duty he 
has prepared for us to walk in — the track on 
which he would have us run. Bat sin, like the 
log against which the engine ran, throws us off 
the track of duty, and causes great harm. 
Look at Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. 
They were like the first two, in a long train of 
cars. When Satan enticed them to sin, he laid 
a log on their track. When they consented to 
sin they ran against that log. This threw 
them off the track, and every car in the long, 
long train that came after them. All the war, 
and misery, and suffering, and death, which has 
filled the world since then, have been the 
effect of throwing that train off the track. 
Jesus has been occupied nearly 6,000 years in 
trying to get that train on the track again. 
It is not on yet, but he is sure to get it on at 
last. This shows us what a dangerous thing 
it is to consent to sin. 

Not long ago some workmen were engaged 



20 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

in building a large brick tower, which was to 
be carried up very high. The master builder 
was very particular in charging the masons to 
lay every brick with the greatest care, es- 
pecially in the first courses, or rows, which 
had to bear the weight of all the rest of the 
building. However, one of the workmen did 
not mind what had been told him. In laying 
a corner he very carelessly left one of the 
bricks a little crooked, out of the line ; or, as 
the masons call it, " not plumb." Well, you 
may say, " It was only one single brick in a 
great pile of them. What difference does it 
make if that was not exactly straight ?" You 
will see directly. The work went on. Nobody 
noticed that there was one brick wrong. But 
as each new course of bricks was kept in a line 
with those already laid, the tower was not put 
up exactly straight, and the higher they built 
it the more insecure it became. One day, 
when the tower had been carried up about 
fifty feet, a tremendous crash was heard. The 
building had fallen to the ground, burying the 
workmen in the ruins. All the previous work 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 21 

was lost, the materials were wasted ; and worse 
than this, — valuable lives were sacrificed, — and 
all because one brick liad been laid wrong at 
the start. The workman who carelessly laid 
that brick wrong, little thought what a danger- 
ous thing he was doing, and what terrible harm 
would result from his neglect. My dear young 
friends, you are now building up your charac- 
ter. In the habits you now form you are lay- 
ing the foundation of that character. One bad 
habit, one brick laid wrong now, may ruin 
your character by and by. Eemember what 
you are doing, and see that every brick is kept 
straight. "If sinners entice thee, consent thou 
not," because it is dangerous. 

But this part of our subject is so important, 
that I must give you another illustration of the 
danger of consenting to sin before we leave it. 

There was a minister once, who had a bright, 
beautiful boy, named James. He was his only 
child. It was on a clear, calm, lovely Sabbath 
morning in June, that the event took place of 
which I am about to tell you. The cherries 
were ripe, and the green leaves which were 



22 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

around them made them appear very nice and 
tempting. James's father was about to leave 
home to go to Church. Knowing that his son 
sometimes acted very improperly when he was 
away, he was afraid that he might be tempted 
to disobey his father and break the Sabbath 
in order to get the cherries. So, before he 
started, he called James to him, and said, " My 
son, do you know what day this is ?" 

" Yes, sir ; it's the Sabbath day." 

" Can you wait until to-morrow for the cher- 
ries, which are ripe ?" 

" Yes, sir," answered James. 

" Now remember, my dear boy, that this is 
God's day. Don't go near that tree. Don't 
forget your father's command." 

" No, sir," said he. 

After his father had disappeared over the 
hill, and his nurse was engaged in another part 
of the house, he took his stand at the open 
window, and stood gazing at the bright, beau- 
tiful fruit, as they hung upon the tree, so ripe 
and juicy. Perhaps you are ready to say, that 
" There were no sinners there to tempt James." 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 23 

Yes, there was. Satan was there, that old 
father of sin and sinners. He is the greatest 
of all enticers. He came up to James, unseen, 
and whispered in his ear, " Don't they look 
ripe? Wouldn't it be nice to have a few? 
What's to hinder ! The nurse is away. No- 
body will see you. Your father will never 
know it. Why not go and get a few ?" Thus 
Satan enticed James. And James consented. 
After he had filled his eye and* his heart with 
the cherries, he resolved to fill his hands and 
his mouth. He stole quietly out of the house, 
and climbed up the tree. He had eaten as 
many as he wanted then, and was plucking 
some to put in his pocket, when the door of the 
house opened suddenly. This frightened him. 
He missed his hold, and fell some twelve feet 
to the ground. The servant ran to pick him 
up, and carry him into the house. But his 
neck was broken, and there lay the young 
Sabbath-breaker, dead ! He had died in the 
very act of breaking two of God's command- 
ments at once ; the fourth, and the fifth. 

At noon his father returned. He found his 



24 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

little boy dead. How must he have felt ? Ah ! 
if we had been there, we would have seen him 
wringing his hands in sorrow, while he took 
up David's lamentation over Absalom, and said : 
" My son ! my son ! would God that I had died 
for thee ! Oh, James, my son ! my son !" 

" If sinners entice thee, consent thou not." 
Don't do it, because it is dangerous. 

The third reason why we should not consent 
to sin, is, becailse it is DISGRACEFUL. 

Sin is disgraceful in two ways : It is dis- 
graceful in the looks it gives us, and in the com- 
pany into which it brings us. The looks it 
gives us ; why, you ask, What has sin to do 
with our looks ? I tell you, it has a great deal 
to do with our looks. 

I suppose you have all seen a gutta-percha 
face ? And I dare say you have amused your- 
self in pinching it one way, and pulling it an- 
other, and seeing what different expressions it 
will put on. But when you stop pulling or 
pinching it, it returns to the same face that it 
was before. 

Now, your faces are softer than gutta-percha, 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 25 

and they are full of little strings called mus- 
cles. These muscles, or strings, are pulled one 
way, or pulled another, just according to your 
feelings. Sometimes you feel grieved or sad, and 
the little muscles pull your face into a very dole- 
ful expression. The moment anybody looks at 
you they know something is troubling you, and 
you feel sorrowful. But if you see a funny 
picture, or if something happens to make you 
feel merry and glad, the little muscles pull 
your face into smiles and dimples, and you look 
just ready to burst out into a broad laugh. 

But when we commit sin, wicked feelings 
are at work pulling these strings. Anger 
pulls one set of strings, and then you know 
what a disagreeable look the face puts on 
in a moment! Pride pulls another set of 
these strings, and so does vanity, or envy, or 
deceit, or discontent ; and each of these brings 
its own peculiar look or expression, over the 
face. And the worst thing about it is, that if 
these strings are pulled too often the face will 
not return to what it was before, but the 
strings will become stiff, like wires, and the 



26 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

face will keep wearing the ugly look it put on, 
all the time. By giving way to sin, or indulg- 
ing their bad feelings, some people get their 
faces worked up to such a dreadful look, that 
when you meet one of them in the street, the 
moment you see him you can tell what his 
character is. 

A face that was very lovely when it was 
that of a child, if it has the passion of anger often 
pulling at it, will get, at last, to wear, all the 
time, a sullen, cross, dissatisfied look. Or, if a 
man has learned to love money better than 
anything else, and to hoard it up for its own 
sake, this will pull a set of strings that will fix 
a close, mean, grasping look upon his face, so 
that as you pass him, you will be ready to say, 
" There goes a miser." Or, if one learns to lie 
and steal, his face will show it, by and by ; it 
will be impossible for him to put on an honest, 
truthful look. 

You know, my dear children, the Bible tells 
us that sin is a reproach, or a disgrace, and if 
we consent to it, or give way to it, it will pull 
those strings in our faces that will make our 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 27 

very looks to be disagraceful. Don't let anger, 
or pride, or passion, get hold of the strings, or 
they will make you appear so ugly that no one 
will love to look at you. But let love, and 
gentleness, and good will, and truth, and hon- 
esty, have hold of the strings, and they will 
make your faces beautiful and lovely. 

Did you ever hear the story of the Two Por- 
traits f It comes in so nicely to illustrate this 
part of our subject, that I must tell it here. 

An Italian painter, once, wanted to get a 
painting that would do to represent the head 
and face of an angel. One day, as he was 
passing through the streets, he saw a little 
child whose face was the brightest, the sweet- 
est, and the most beautiful he had ever seen. 
He said to himself, " That is just what I want." 
He asked permission to paint a likeness of the 
head and face of that child. It was granted. 
He finished it, and hung it up in his study. 
Everybody admired it. The sweet gentle look 
of that face seemed like an angel's look. He 
often gazed upon it when he was disturbed, or 
troubled, and it seemed to soothe him and do 



28 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

him good. He used to say that he would like 
to paint another head, to be the very opposite 
of this ; as unlike it, in every respect, as possi- 
ble. Then he would have the two portraits to 
hang side by side — the one as the head of an 
angel ; the other, as the head of a fiend : the 
one to represent heaven, the other to represent 
hell. But many years passed away before he 
found any one who looked horrible enough to 
be the subject for the second picture. At 
length, in a distant land, he was once visiting 
a prison. There, he saw a man whose appear- 
ance was the most dreadful he had ever seen. 
His face had the fierce, haggard look of a fiend, 
with glaring eyes, and cheeks deeply marked 
with lust and crime. The moment, he saw the 
man, he said to himself " This will do for my 
second portrait." He painted a picture of this 
loathsome face to hang beside that beautiful 
angel head, which had been in his study so 
long. And when they hung there side by side, 
oh, how great the contrast between them was ! 
The one looked, for all the world, like the face 
of an angel, and the other like the face of a 



RESISTING TESTATION. 29 

fiend. But when the painter came to inquire 
into the history of the prisoner, you may judge 
what his surprise was, when he found this hid- 
eous looking man was the very same person, 
whose face when a child, he had taken, from 
which to paint his portrait of an angel. And 
now that face was so changed, that he painted 
his portrait of a fiend from it. And what had 
made this surprising change ? One little word 
of three letters — sin. I said that sin was dis- 
graceful in the looks it gives us. Here you 
see how true this is ! 

But sin is disgraceful also in the company to 
which it brings us. When Jesus was on earth 
he said, " Whosoever committeth sin is the ser- 
vant of sin." Now, so far as we know, Satan 
was the first sinner. He is the author, or father 
of sin. And if we are the servants of sin we 
must be the servants of Satan also. But can 
there be any greater disgrace than this ? You 
know that in some cities, when men have 
committed great crimes for which they are 
condemned to the penitentiary, they are 
obliged to wear a particular kind of prison 
3* 



30 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

dress. Then they are chained together in 
gangs of three or four, and compelled to sweep 
the streets, and do other such like work for the 
city authorities. Now, suppose you had a young 
friend about 18 or 19 years old. We may call 
him Charles Jackson. l J ,o has had a good 
education. His parents are well off, and very 
respectable. His father is an eminent physi- 
cian in this city. But Charles was a bad boy. 
He gave his parents a great deal of trouble, 
and several years ago he ran away from home. 
And suppose that one day you are walking 
through the streets of one of those cities where 
the prisoners, in chains, are made to act as 
scavengers. As you go along you pass one of 
those chain-gang of prisoners. You look up in 
passing, and there, to your surprise and sor- 
row, you see, chained in between criminals, 
your old friend, Charles Jackson! 0, how 
shocked you are ! You say to yourself, what 
a disgrace to be found in such company ! Sin 
brought that disgrace upon Charles. 

Now, do you know that Satan and the wicked 
spirits with him are God's chain-gang prison 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 31 

ers. The Bible tells us that they are "re- 
served," or kept, ' ; in everlasting chains under 
darkness" (Jude 6). Or, as it calls them in 
another place, " in chains of darkness" They 
are God's prisoners in chains. And all who 
consent to sin are bound in the same 
gang with them. And if we remain in the 
company of Satan here, in this life, we must 
share the wages which he will receive at last, 
and be shut up in company with him forever. 
There is one passage in the Bible which speaks 
about this, and it is enough to make one's blood 
run cold just to read it, or hear it. It is the 
25th chapter of Matthew and 41st verse. Here 
Jesus is describing the solemn scenes of the 
judgment day. He is seated on his glorious 
throne. The holy angels are about him. All 
nations are gathered before him. On his right 
hand stand the righteous, i. e., all who have 
loved and served him. He smiles on them and 
says, " Come, ye blessed children of my Father, 
receive the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world." On his left hand 
stand the wicked, i. e., all who have consented 



32 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

to sin and served Satan. He turns to them, 
with an awful frown, and says, "Depart, ye 
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
devil and his angels !" Dreadful, dreadful 
words ! If the fire was prepared for the devil 
and his angels, the place was prepared for them 
too. Only think of being shut up in the com- 
pany of all wicked angels and men forever ! 
What a disgrace ! The third reason why we 
should not consent to sin is that it is disgrace- 
ful 

Here, then, we have three good reasons why 
we should not consent to sin. The first is be- 
cause when we begin it is hard to stop / the second 
is because it is dangerous ; and the third, because 
it is disgraceful. 

In conclusion, my dear children, there are 
two things we ought all of us to do. We ought 
to get rid of the sins we have committed. This is 
one thing. We are all sinners. Every one of 
us has committed sin. The great thing is to 
get rid of it. Now, there is only One Person 
in all the universe who can take away sin. 
This is Jesus. He came, the Bible tells us ; 



RESISTING TEMPTATION. 33 

" to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 
He was nailed to the cross, and shed his pre- 
cious blood for this purpose. Hence the Bible 
tells us that " the blood of Jesus Christ clean- 
seth from all sin." If we are truly sorry for 
our sins, and pray God for His sake to pardon 
our sins, they will be all forgiven. He will 
blot them out of His book of remembrance, and 
they will never be mentioned any more. This 
is one thing we ought to do. Get rid of the sins 
we have committed. 

And then there is another thing we ought to 
do ; and that is, to try and keep from sinning any 
more. 

Said a boy to his sister one day, " I want 
the spirit to look sin right in the face when it 
comes to me, and say, Begone." 

" Yes, brother," said his sister, " and one 
thing more you want : you want God's specta- 
cles to see sin and know it when it comes, for 
it doesn't always show its colors." 

I suppose by " God's spectacles" this good 
girl meant the Bible. This helps us to see 
things as God sees them, just as though we 



34 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

were looking at them through his spectacles. 
There is nothing like the Bible to show us 
what sin is. And then, while it shows us what 
is sin, it shows us how to deal with it. " If 
sinners entice thee, consent thou not." Take 
your stand at once. Don't trifle with it. The 
moment it appears resist it. 

In front of my house there are two young 
shade trees ; or rather one in front of my house 
and the other in front of my next-door neigh- 
bor's house. Last spring they both came out 
in leaf beautifully. They looked very green 
and flourishing. After a while the worms ap- 
peared, — those long, black, ugly-looking crea- 
tures that play such havoc with our shade trees 
every spring. Well, one day, when I was going 
out of the house, I stopped a moment to look 
at the tree, and found the worms had fairly got 
possession of it, and were likely, in a few days, 
to eat up all the leaves. I shook my head and 
said, " Ah ! my gentlemen, this'll never do." 
So I went in and got a chair to stand upon, and 
taking a cane in my hand, I went to work and 
knocked off and killed every worm that was on 



EESISTING TEMPTATION. 35 

the tree. That saved the tree. It has been 
growing nicely all the summer. But my neigh- 
bor let the worms alone on his tree.* The con- 
sequence was that they ate up every particle 
of leaf that was on it. Then the tree died, and 
every time I look at its bare, black, dismal- 
looking, dead branches, it teaches me a lesson. 
It seems to tell me the importance of resisting 
sin as soon as it appears. What the worms 
were to that tree sins are to your soul. Oh, 
pray God to give you grace to see your sins as 
soon as they appear, and to try to get rid of 
them at once. 

" If sinners entice thee, consent thou,*e*." 



II. 

%t1x$m anil gitte toprtU. 

" She is more precious than rubies." — Prov. iii. 15. 

4 



II. 

" She is more precious than rubies." — Peov. iii. 15. 

Solomon is speaking of religion here. He 
calls it wisdom. Wisdom is always repre- 
sented as a female. The first word in the text, 
the pronoun she, means religion. Suppose, 
now, that we put this word in place of the 
pronoun she, and then the verse will read in this 
way, " Religion is more precious than rubies." 

A ruby is a beautiful gem. It is a precious 
stone, of a bright rose or blood-red color. 
If you look at a ruby, when the sunlight is 
on it, you will see it shining, and sparkling in 
the most beautiful manner. Among precious 
stones the ruby is reckoned the most valuable, 
next to the diamond. And because it is con- 
sidered so valuable, religion is here compared 
to it. Solomon was a good judge, both of ru- 
bies and of religion. He was the richest man 
on the earth at the time in which he lived. He 
had gold and silver almost without any end. 

(39) ' 



40 RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 

He had all kinds of jewels and precious stones. 
Among these, no doubt, he had a great many- 
rubies. He knew how much they were worth, 
and what they were good for. And then Solo- 
mon was a pious man. He knew very well 
how much religion was worth. He knew what 
it was good for. So that we know he under- 
stood what he. was speaking about when he 
wrote the words of which we are now think- 
ing. But Solomon was not speaking for him- 
self, when he used these words. " A greater 
than Solomon is here." It is God who is here 
speaking through him. Solomon was one of 
those " holy men of old" whom the Holy Ghost 
employed to write the Bible. What those men 
said was not their own words, but God's. 
" They spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost." It is God, then, who is here speaking 
of religion, and says, "She is more precious 
than rubies." God knows how much rubies 
are worth, for He made them all. And God 
knows how much religion is worth, for He is 
the Author of it. Now here, you see, we have 
two things to examine or compare together — 



THE SAFE COMPASS. 41 

religion and rubies. This is the subject of our 
sermon this afternoon. When you go home 
from church to-day, if anybody asks you what 
was the sermon about, you can say it was about 
religion and rubies compared. 

" She is more precious than rubiest 

Now, the question we have to answer is, in 
what way is religion more precious than ru- 
bies ? I wish to speak of five ways in which 
this is so. 

And in the first place, religion is more precious 
than rubies, in the way OF instruction. 

A ruby is a very beautiful thing to look at. 
It glitters and sparkles in such a way that you 
can't help admiring it. But what can a ruby 
teach you ? What instruction can it give you ? 
Suppose that you have one of the largest and 
most valuable rubies that the world contains ; 
but, at the same time, that you have no 
Bible. Suppose, also, that you have never 
seen or heard of a Bible. You have never had 
a single lesson from it. You are entirely igno- 
rant of all the great things which the Bible 
teaches. Now, how much could you learn 
4* 



42 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

about those things from your ruby ? You look 
upon this beautiful world around you, — the 
fields, the woods, the mountains, the hills, the 
plains, the valleys, the rivers, and springs that 
run among the hills, — the sun as it shines by 
day, and the moon and the stars as they shine 
by night, — and you want to know who made 
them all. And can your ruby tell you ? Oh, 
no ! But here religion comes with her Bible. 
Can she tell you ? Yes, indeed. She opens 
the first chapter of this wonderful book and 
reads, " In the beginning God created the 
heavens and the earth." You look at yourself. 
What a wonderful creature you are! How 
strangely your body is made, with its eyes, and 
ears, and hands, and feet, and heart, and lungs. 
And then the soul that dwells in this moving 
house ; the soul that thinks, and feels, and 
loves, and hates, — who made it and put it in 
this curious body ? The ruby cannot tell you 
anything about it. But religion can tell 
you. She opens her wondrous book again and 
reads : " The Lord God formed man out of the 
dust of the ground, and breathed into his nos- 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 43 

trils the breath of life, and man became a liv- 
ing soul." 

You have a dear little brother, whom you 
love very much. He is taken sick. The doc- 
tor comes to see him — but can't cure him. He 
dies. You see him put into the coffin. The 
lid is screwed down upon him. Then comes 
the funeral. You go to the grave-yard. The 
coffin is lowered into the grave. You lean 
over and look down. How cold and damp it 
seems ! Now the men shovel in the earth, and 
your little brother is hidden from your sight. 
You want to know .what has become of him. 
And can your ruby tell you? No. But here 
is religion with her Bible. She opens it and 
reads, " the dust," i. e. the body, " shall return 
to the earth as it was ; and the spirit shall re- 
turn unto God who gave it." Eccles. xii. 7. 

But you have seen the flowers in the garden 
all wither and die when winter came ; yet on 
the return of spring, they start up a,nd grow 
again. You have seen the little worm weave 
a sort of coffin around itself. In this it has 
lain all winter, as if dead. But in spring that 



44 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

little coffin opens, and instead of the crawling 
worm, out conies a beautiful butterfly. Now, 
as you stand by your little brother's grave, you 
want to know whether he will live again like 
the flowers, or whether his coffin will open and 
he will come out again as much changed as the 
worm was when turned into the butterfly. Oh, 
how anxious you are to know this ! Well, ask 
your beautiful ruby^ Can it give you any an- 
swer ? Not a word. But here is religion with 
her Bible. Ask her. She opens the Bible and 
reads, "Thy brother shall rise again." John 
xi. 23. " The hour is coming in which all that 
are in the graves shall hear the voice of the 
Son of Man and shall come forth." John v. 28. 
You have heard that God made you, and the 
world, and all things. You know that He is 
very powerful, and can do whatever He desires. 
But you wish to know what sort of a God He 
is. Is He kind, and loving, and gentle ? or is 
He angry, and fierce, and cruel ? These are 
questions which your ruby can't answer. But 
ask religion about them. She opens her Bible 
and reads, " God is love." 1 John iv. 8. " The 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 45 

Lord is good unto all, and His tender mercies 
are over all His works." Ps. cxlv. 9. And now 
suppose that you are going to die, yourself. 
You feel that you are a sinner, and are afraid 
to die. You want to know how your sins can 
be pardoned, so that you may go to heaven 
when you die. Can your ruby tell you ? No. 
But you ask religion. She opens her Bible and 
reads, " The blood of Jesus Christ His Son 
cleanseth from all sin." 1 John i. 7. "Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
saved." Acts xvi. 31. 

A little girl, named Mary, had been going to 
Sunday School for some time. She was only 
about seven or eight years old. But she had 
learned enough to know that she was a sinner, 
and that Jesus was the only Savior. She loved 
him, and prayed to Him every day. Mary's 
parents never went to church, and never read 
the Bible. They were careless, wicked people, 
who never thought about God or heaven. One 
night Mary's father was taken suddenly ill. 
His illness was very alarming. The poor man 
saw death staring him in the face. He felt 



46 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

that he was a sinner, and not prepared to die. 
He asked his wife to pray for him. She said 
she didn't know how to pray. " Oh, what shall 
I do ?" he exclaimed, " how can I die with all 
my sins upon me ?" 

" Mary has learned a great deal about the 
Bible, at Sunday-school," said his wife ; " sup- 
pose I call her. Perhaps she can tell you 
something that will comfort you. 

" Call her at once," said he. 

Mary was called, out of her sleep, to the 
bedside of her dying father. " Mary, my 
child," said the poor man, "I'm going to die ; 
but I feel that I'm a great sinner. Can you 
tell me how a sinner like me, can be saved ?" 

" Oh, yes, father," said Mary, " Jesus Christ 
came into the world to save sinners." 

" But how does He save sinners ? and will 
He save such a great sinner as I am ?" 
* " Jesus says, in the Bible," replied Mary, 
" ' Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' ' God 
so loved the world that He gave his only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 






RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 47 

should not perish, but have everlasting life/ 
1 Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise 
cast out.' " 

" Does the Bible say all that, Mary ?" asked 
the dying man, with great earnestness. 

" Yes," said Mary ; " those are the very 
words I learned in Sunday-school." 

Then he asked Mary to kneel down and pray 
for him. So she kneeled down and prayed 
that God would have mercy on her dear father ; 
that He would pardon his sins, and save his 
soul, for Jesus' sake. 

In the morning, when Mary woke up, her 
father was dead. But he died believing the 
words, that Mary had told him from the Bible, 
and he found peace in believing them, But, 
suppose that Mary had taken a handful of 
rubies to her dying father, instead of the in- 
structions she gave him from the Bible, would 
they have done him any good ? None at all. 
Well, then you see that religion is more 
precious than rubies in the way of instruction. 

The second ivay in which it is more precious 
is in the way of help. 



48 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

I mean by this, that religion will do a great 
deal more to help us under the troubles that 
we have to meet with in life, than rubies can 
do. I don't think I can illustrate this part of 
our subject better than by telling you about a 
poor boy, so that you can see what religion did 
to help him under his difficulties. 

A minister of the gospel, after an absence of 
several years, returned to spend a Sabbath at 
a, town in England, where he had formerly 
been settled. After the services were over, a 
widow woman knocked at the door of the 
vestry-room, and desired to see him. " Don't 
you remember me, sir ?" she asked. 

" No, I do not/ 7 said he. 

" Don't you remember my John ? He used to 
be in Sunday-school." 

" I can't say that I do," answered the minister. 

" Oh, sir," said the old woman, " my John is 
the " test John in the world ; and I thought 
I would like to tell you about him." 

The minister said he would be glad to 
hear what she had to say ; and then she told 
her story, as follows : 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COl^fPARED. 49 

" After you left us, sir, my husband died, and 
we became very poor, indeed we were almost 
starving. One day, John said to me, ' Mother, 
dear, we can't starve, and there is no work to 
be got ; let me go to sea for a time, and try to 
earn some money for you/ I was very unwil- 
ling to part from him • but times were bad, and 
as he seemed so anxious about it, I gave him a 
parting kiss and prayer, and with his Bible in 
his pocket, and a bundle in his hand, he set 
off to the nearest seaport town, to try and get 
a situation on board a ship. He went from 
vessel to vessel, among the docks, for several 
days, but could not get a situation. At last, 
when he was almost discouraged, he saw the 
captain of a ship passing by, ' Don't you want a 
boy, sir ?' said John. ' Why, that's the very 
thing I'm looking for,' said the captain. ' Do 
then, sir, take me. ' Well, where is your char- 
acter ?' ' Nobody knows me here, sir,' said 
John. 'But in my own parish I could get a 
character, in a minute.' 'I can't take you 
without a character.' The captain was turning 
away, when John thought of his Bible, and 
5 



50 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

opening it in an instant, he said, ' How will 
that do, sir ?' The captain read the following : 

^Msentefr to 
JOHN REYNOLDS, 

FOR HIS GOOD BEHAVIOR IN SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

' That'll do, my boy/ said the captain, l come 
along.' Accordingly John was shipped in a 
merchant vessel bound for St. Petersburgh. 
During the voyage a dreadful storm arose. 
The wind blew a hurricane, and every one ex- 
pected the vessel to be lost. The sailors had 
done all they could, and were waiting to see 
the end. Then John took out his Bible, and 
in a loud, solemn voice, read out the 51st 
Psalm. While he was doing this, one after 
another, the sailors first, and then the officers 
gathered round him. When he had done read- 
ing, he kneeled down and prayed very earn- 
estly that God would make the storm to cease, 
and spare their lives. God heard that prayer, 
and soon after the storm began to abate. The 
captain acknowledged that John's prayers had 
saved the ship, and promised him a holiday 
when they got to St. Petersburgh. 




THE SAILOR BOY IN THE STORM. 
The Safe Compass. 50 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 51 

" He kept his word, and while the ship was 
lying there, he gave John the promised holiday. 
Boylike, John went to the palace of the empe- 
ror to see all the great people go to court. 
As he stood in wonder, gazing on carriage after 
carriage, passing by, something dropped at his 
feet. It was a bracelet, sparkling with jewels, 
which had dropped from a lady's hand. John 
picked it up, and called aloud for the coach- 
man to stop, but in vain ; the crowd and the 
noise prevented John from being noticed, and 
he returned to the ship with the bracelet. 
■ You're a lucky fellow/ said the captain ; 

I why, these are diamonds.' ' Yes, sir • but 
they are not mine.' ' How did you get them V 

I I picked them up, and called to the driver to 
stop ; but he drove on, and didn't hear me.' 
1 Then you did all you could under the circum- 
stances, and they are clearly yours.' ' No, cap- 
tain ; they are not mine,' said John. ' You 
foolish fellow,' said the captain, ' let me have 
the diamonds, and when we get back to London, 
I'll sell them for you, and they'll fetch lots of 
money.' ' That may be, sir ; but they are not 



52 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

mine, and suppose, captain, we should have an- 
other storm as we go home, what then ?' ' Aye, 
aye, Jack/ said the captain, ' I didn't think of 
that ! Well, we must try and find the owner.' 
This was done. The lady gave Jack a sum of 
money as a reward for his honesty. This 
money, at the advice of the captain, was laid 
out in skins and hides. When these were sold 
on their return, John left the ship after his first 
voyage, with eighty pounds, or $400 in his 
pocket. He came straight home to his native 
village. He found me in the work-house. He 
took me out and rented a nice little cottage for 
me, and there he has supported me ever since. 
He is the captain of a ship now ; but he never 
forgets his old mother. I tell you, sir," said 
she, ending as she began, " my John's the best 
John in the world." 

The minister thought she had good reason 
to think so. But just see how religion helped 
this boy, under his troubles, in a way in which 
the best ruby in the world never could have 
done. It was religion which taught John to 
love and honor his mother, and do all he could 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 53 

to help and comfort her. It was religion which 
gave him that Bible with the recommendation 
in it, and this secured him a situation. It was 
religion which taught him to read that Bible 
for comfort in the storm, and to pray to God 
for help, when the officers and men could no 
longer help themselves. It was religion that 
saved that ship, and all on board, from destruc- 
tion. . It was religion that kept John from 
acting dishonestly about the bracelet he had 
found. That was the turning point of his his- 
tory. If he had done wrong then, he probably 
never would have succeeded as he afterwards 
did. It was religion which built up for John 
the good character he possessed, and secured 
him his success in life. But what could rubies 
have done, in the place of religion, on any of 
these occasions? And so you see, clearly 
enough, that religion is better, i. e., " more 
precious than rubies' 7 in the way of help. 
But religion is more precious than rubies in 

the WAY OF COMFORT. 

It is surprising to find in how many different 
ways people are afflicted and troubled in this 



54 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

world. But whatever the trouble is to which 
those who love Jesus, and are truly religious, 
are exposed, they find that their religion gives 
them such comfort as no gold or silver, or jew- 
els, could ever give them. 

There was a good man once, who was very 
rich. He had so much money, and so many 
good things, that one of his Christian friends 
asked him, one day, if he was not afraid of for- 
getting God, and thinking too much of his 
money. His answer was, " No • for I enjoy 
God in all things." After a while, he lost all his 
property, and was reduced almost to beggary. 
His old friend was afraid this would be too 
much for him, and asked him if his great losses 
did not make him feel very unhappy? But 
with a cheerful smile, he answered, ' • No ; for 
now I enjoy all tilings in God" Ah ! if rich 
people would learn to enjoy God in all things, 
their riches would never do them any harm. 
And if the poor would learn to enjoy all things 
in God, they Avould always be happy even in 
their poverty. Religion can give people 
comfort under trials when no rubies, or 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 55 

jewels of any kind, could afford them any 
pleasure. 

Some time ago there was a Brahmin, in India, 
who was very rich. He owned many houses 
and extensive lands. He had a beautiful wife, 
and numerous children. From conversation 
with a missionary, and from reading the Xew 
Testament, he was led to become a Christian. 
But when he was baptized, according to the 
custom of that country, all his friends and rela- 
tions forsook him. He was disowned by them 
all. Xot one of them would speak to him, or 
have anything to do with him. All his prop- 
erty, too. was taken from him. He was left 
without a cent, and was obliged to work for 
his own living. One day, a British officer, who 
was a Christian himself, and knew what this 
man had suffered by becoming a Christian, 
asked him how he bore his sorrows and if he 
was supported under them. " Ah !" said he, 
" I am often asked that. But nobody asks me 
how I bear my joys. The Lord Jesus sought 
me out and found me, a poor, stray sheep in the 
jungle. He brought me to His fold, and fills 



56 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

me with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
What could rubies do to make a man happy 
under such circumstances ? But religion gave 
this man such comfort that, like Paul, of old, 
when he had endured " the loss of all things " 
earthly, he considered it " a gain, that he might 
win Christ." 

There was a poor woman in England whose 
name was Harriet Stoneman. She was afflicted 
for thirty-nine years with a most distressing 
disease. Her sufferings at times were dread- 
ful. It was just as if her bones were being 
ground to pieces, or burnt up in her body. At 
first she was the most miserable and unhappy 
creature that you can imagine. But after a 
while she became a Christian, and learned to 
love Jesus. Then she was a new creature, in- 
deed. Her religion did not cure her disease, 
or take away her pains ; but, oh, it gave her 
wonderful support and comfort under them. 
Great as her sufferings were, she never mur- 
mured or complained, but always seemed cheer- 
ful and happy. She always had some pleasant 
word to speak of Jesus, and the joy she found 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 57 

in him. Three shillings a week, about seventy- 
five cents of our money, was all she had for her 
support. Yet, out of this small sum, for twenty- 
eight years she regularly laid by a penny, i. e.. 
two cents a week for the missionary cause. 
And notwithstanding her sufferings, she used 
to be constantly writing letters and sending 
tracts to people, -to try and do them good. 
Now, suppose this woman had had a house full 
of rubies and gems given to her, what could 
they have done to comfort her ? Nothing at 
all. But in her greatest distress she found real 
comfort in her religion. 

Let us take one more illustration of this part 
of our subject. Several years ago a large 
steamer, called the Austria, caught fire at sea, 
in coming to this country from Europe. She 
had a great number of passengers on board. 
Every effort was made to put out the fire, but 
in vain. They couldn't get at the engine to 
stop it, and the progress of the vessel through 
the water only fanned the flames, and made the 
fire burn the faster. The only prospect before 
the passengers was a choice between two ways 



58 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

of dying. They must either jump overboard and 
be drowned, or remain on the vessel and be 
burned. What a dreadful choice ! Of course 
there was great confusion and distress on board 
that burning ship. Some were so terrified that 
they could neither move nor speak. Some 
cried ; some screamed ; some ran wildly about, 
wringing their hands, not knowing what they 
did. What could rubies or jewels do to com- 
fort persons in such trying circumstances? 
Nothing whatever. Why, gold and silver and 
precious things lay scattered on the deck, and 
nobody would stoop to pick them up. But, in 
the midst of this scene of terror, over in one 
corner of the deck, as far away as possible from 
the fire, a little company of Christians were 
gathered together. They had then no thought 
of being saved, though two or three of them 
were saved, who afterwards told what I 
am now describing. In an hour or two they 
expected to be in eternity. And what are they 
doing ? They are calm, and cheerful. They 
have a Bible among them. A few verses are 
read. Then one of them prays. Then they 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 59 

talk about Jesus and that glorious heaven 
where they expect soon to meet. Then they 
read and pray again. They found comfort in 
their religion then, when nothing else in all the 
world could have given them comfort. 

Religion is " more precious than rubies" in 
the way of comfort. 

But, fourthly, religion is " move precious than 
rubies" in the way of ornament. 

Rubies are chiefly used for ornament. We 
see them in breastpins, on rings, on bracelets, 
and head-dresses, and such like articles. 

Rubies only adorn our bodies, but religion 
adorns our souls. We can not eat rubies, 
or drink them. We can not put them 
into our hearts, our eyes, our cheeks, our 
lips. They belong to the outside of us. 
But it is different with religion. This be- 
longs particularly to the heart. It has its 
seat or dwelling place in the heart ; and from 
the heart it makes itself felt over the whole 
person. You know how much more beautiful 
a landscape appears if you look at it when the 
sun is shining, from what it is at night, or on a 



60 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

dark and cloudy day. But religion is the sun- 
shine of the soul. It makes everything about 
it look bright and beautiful. We sometimes 
hear of people using different things to improve 
their complexion and make them look pretty. 
The things used for this purpose are called cos- 
metics. The meaning of cosmetic is, to make 
beautiful. But true religion is the best cos- 
metic in the world. It improves the looks of 
people more than anything else can. I have 
known people, whose faces were naturally 
really ugly, but who were yet made so beauti- 
ful by religion, that you could not look at them 
without admiring them. You know when 
Moses came down from talking with God, on 
the Mount, his face was so bright and shining, 
that it fairly dazzled people's eyes, like looking 
at the sun, and he had to put a vail over it, 
before his friends could talk with him. It was 
his religion which did that. And so you re- 
member the first martyr, St. Stephen, while 
preaching to the Jews, said : " Behold I see the 
heavens opened, and the Son of man standing 
at the right hand of Glod. And all that sat in 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 61 

the council, looking at him, saw his face as it 
had been the face of an angel." It was the re- 
ligion of Stephen which made his face look so 
beautiful. Religion has a wonderful power in 
adorning people, or improving their appear- 
ance. It gives them " a meek and quiet spirit ;" 
and this, the Bible calls an " ornament which is 
in the sight of God of great price." Religion 
makes the eye look brighter, and the complex- 
ion clearer, and the smile sweeter, and the voice 
softer and everything about our person better 
looking than it otherwise would be. You re- 
member that we kept the last Washington's 
birth-day as a sort of holiday. In the evening- 
many of the finest houses in the city were illu- 
minated. The blinds were up, and the gas or 
candles were burning, and the parlors were 
lighted up, so that as you went by you could 
see the beautiful paintings and statuary that 
were in them. What a wonderful change that 
illumination made in the appearance of those 
houses ! But religion is the illumination of 
the soul. It lights it up in such a way as to 
show us beauties that we never should have 



62 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

seen without it. And yet it only just begins 
to do this in the present life. We never shall 
know, till we get to heaven, what ornaments 
religion will put upon us, or how beautiful it 
will make us appear. 

You remember reading about the transfigura- 
tion of Jesus on the Mount. The disciples who 
were with Him saw His face shining with a 
brightness more dazzling than that of the sun. 
His garments became whiter than snow, and glit- 
tered and sparkled most gloriously. I suppose 
that was the most glorious sight ever seen in 
this world. And one of the reasons why Jesus 
was transfigured in that way was to give us, as 
it were, a peep into heaven, — to let us have just 
a glance at his glory. Jesus appeared on the 
mount of transfiguration, just as He appears 
now in heaven. And He appeared in this man- 
ner in order to show us a pattern of the beauty 
and glory which He intends to put on all His 
people. If we love Jesus He will make us look, 
at last, and look forever, just as He looked 
Himself when He was transfigured. The Bible 
tells us, that " He will change our vile bodies 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 63 

and make them like His own glorious body." 
It tells us, too, that when " He shall appear" 
again in the glory of his heavenly kingdom " we 
shall be like Him." What a sight it will be, 
when all who have loved and served Jesus, shall 
be shining forth in beauty and glory just as 
He shone on the Mount of Transfiguration! 
The finest rubies in the world will only be like 
dark spots upon the sun compared to them. 
When you see an ugly-looking worm crawling 
on the earth, you can hardly think that some 
day it will put on beautiful wings, and go flying 
about in the sunbeams, all glittering with glory. 
But it will. And just such a change awaits the 
Christian. 

A poor, but very pious and Christian woman 
once called to see two rich young ladies. They 
were elegantly dressed, but they were Chris- 
tians too, and, without regard to her poverty, 
and mean appearance, they received her with 
great kindness, and inviting her into a splendid 
dining-room, sat down to converse with her 
upon religious subjects. While they were 
thus engaged, a brother of the young ladies 



64 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

happened to enter. He was a gay, thoughtless, 
proud young man. He looked greatly aston- 
ished to see his sisters engaged in conversation 
with such a poor, shabby-looking woman. One 
of them rose up directly and said, "Brother, 
don't be surprised ; this is a king's daughter, 
only she has not yet got her fine clothing on." 

In the way of ornament religion is more 
precious than rubies. 

I will speak of one more point, and this is, 
that religion is " more precious than rubies" in 

the WAY OF RICHES. 

Rubies are very valuable. I saw a small 
one in a jeweler's store the other day, which 
they told me was worth about $150. Some- 
times a ruby has been found that was worth 
several thousand dollars. But, suppose that all 
the rubies in the world could be gathered to- 
gether in one great, glittering pile. What a 
dazzling sight they would present ! I cannot 
venture to guess how much they would be worth. 
But this I know very well, that, whatever amount 
of money they might be valued at, though it 
were multiplied ten thousand times, it would 



RELIGION AND KUBIES COMPARED. 65 

still be true that religion would be more pre- 
cious than rubies. In the way of riches it would 
be worth more than all those rubies put to- 
gether. We consider a man rich if he is worth 
four or" five hundred thousand dollars. But do 
you know how rich religion makes a man? 
Did you ever try to calculate how much a 
Christian is worth ? Perhaps you would like 
to reckon it up. You can work it out by addi- 
tion and multiplication. Let me tell you how 
to begin. The Bible tells us that Christians 
are "joint heirs with Christ." Rom. viii. 17. 
Now, you know that the heir of a man is the 
person who is to possess his property. " Joini- 
heirs" are those who share, or possess property 
together. When we are told that Christians 
are "joint-heirs with Christ/ 7 it means that 
Jesus will share with His people all that be- 
longs to Him. And how much is Jesus worth ? 
He said, himself, " All things that the Father 
hath are mine." Well, then, if you want to 
work out the sum that I was just speaking of, 
you must add up the value of all the gold, 
and the silver, and the gems, and the jewels, 
G* 



66 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

and the iron, and brass, and the houses, and the 
lands in the world. And when you have writ- 
ten down the sum of all these, you must multi- 
ply it by the number of all the other worlds 
that God has made. That will tell you how 
much Jesus is worth, and when you find that 
out you will find how rich religion makes a 
Christian. 

" See !" said a rich land owner to a poor 
peasant, as he pointed out to him the beautiful 
things around ; " those broad fields are mine. 
Those magnificent parks, those beautiful for- 
ests, those snug, smiling farms, and, in short 
all you see, on every side, belong to me." 

The poor peasant was a Christian. He had 
not much of worldly goods, but he felt that he 
was rich in faith, and an heir of God's glorious 
kingdom. He looked thoughtfully at the great 
landholder for a moment, and then with the 
hope and joy of a Christian kindling in his 
eye, he pointed towards heaven, saying, 

" And is that yours, also ?" 

The lord of all those possessions was silent. 
He felt in a moment that he with all his prop- 



RELIGION AND RUBIES COMPARED. 67 

erty was poor, for lie had nothing to take with 
him beyond the grave ; while the humble peas- 
ant was really rich, for he was the owner of 
" an inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away.' 7 In the way of 
riches religion is " more precious than rubies." 

Now, we have compared religion and rubies 
together in five different ways, and have seen 
that in each of them, " she is more precious 
than rubies." In the way of instruction this is 
true ; and so it is in the way of help — in the 
vjay of comfort — in the way of ornament, and in 
the ivay of riches. 

And if this is so, then how earnestly we should 
seek this great blessing. Religion is the prin- 
cipal thing. It is " the one thing needful," of 
which Jesus spoke when he was on earth. 
This was what He meant when He said : " Seek 
first the kingdom of God and His righteous- 
— ss." 

"Religion is the chief concern 
Of mortals here below ; 
May we its great importance learn, 
Its sovereign virtue know. 



68 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

Religion should our thoughts engage 
Amidst our youthful bloom ; 

'Twill fit us for declining age 
Or for an early tomb. 

Oh ! may our hearts by grace renewed 
Be our Redeemer's throne ; 

And be our stubborn will subdued, 
His government to own. 

Let deep repentance, faith and love 
Be joined with godly fear 

And all our conversation prove 
Our hearts to be sincere." 



III. 

'man ftum t\t §,nt 



" G-o to the ant,— consider her ways, and be wise." — Peov. 
vi. 6. 



III. 

" Go to the ant, — consider her ways, and be wise." — Prov. 
vi. 6. 

What a very little thing an ant is ! Some 
of them are so small that we can hardly see 
them. The largest of them are not longer 
than the end of your little finger. We might 
crush hundreds of them at a time by a single 
stamp of our foot. Many persons despise 
them. Very few think of them as they ought. 
But here, Solomon, who was the wisest man 
who ever lived, sets up a little ant before us 
as our teacher. He says : — " Go to the ant, — ■ 
consider her ways, and be wise." 

Suppose you should come to your class in 
Sunday School, some Sunday morning, and find 
your teacher's chair empty. You would per- 
haps say to yourself, " Well, we're not going to 
have any teacher to-day." And suppose that 

while you were waiting, you should see a little 

(ID 



72 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

tiny ant climb up into the chair. There you see 
it creeping up, and up, and presently it gets on 
to the seat of the chair. You watch it narrowly 
to see what it is going to do. Pretty soon it 
takes its place right in the middle of the chair. 
There it lifts itself up on its hind legs in a 
kind of sitting posture. It puts on a grave, 
wise, knowing look. It makes a graceful bow 
of its little head, and begins to speak. How 
funny it would be ! You look and listen very 
attentively. It says — " My dear young friends, 
will you allow me to take your kind teacher's' 
place to-day? I am a little mite of a creature, 
I know, but please don't despise me on that 
account. I don't know how to read, and I can't 
pretend to explain the wonderful things in the 
Bible, that your teacher is accustomed to talk 
to you about. But I should like to tell you 
about myself, and the tribe of people that I 
belong to. We ants are a curious set of crea- 
tures. And yet I think you will be interested 
in some of our habits and customs, and perhaps 
you may learn some useful lessons from hear- 
ing about our ways of living," 



WESSONS FROM THE ANT. 73 

Now, if anything of this kind could take 
place, and your tiny little teacher could speak 
to you, she would have a great many interest- 
ing things to tell. She could tell you about 
the houses they live in, some of which are 
forty stories high, twenty stories being dug 
out, one beneath another, under the earth, and 
twenty stories being built up over them, above 
ground : she could tell you about the different 
kinds of trades they follow, how some are 
miners, and dig down into the ground : — some 
are masons and build very curious houses, with 
long walls, supported by pillars and covered 
over with arched ceilings. She could tell you 
how some are carpenters, who build houses out 
of wood, having many chambers which commu- 
nicate with each other by entries and galleries ; 
how some are nurses, and spend their whole 
time taking care of the young ones ; — some 
are laborers and are made, like the negro 
slaves in the South, to work for their masters ; 
while some are soldiers, whose only business it 
is to mount guard, and stand ready to defend 
their friends and felhiv-citizens, in case of any 
7 



74 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

attack being made upon them. These, and a 
great many other curious things, she could speak 
about. I am sure you would remember the 
lessons of your little teacher, on that day, as 
long as you live. But, of course, nothing like 
this will ever take place. We have only been 
supposing that it might — though we know very 
well that it can't. We know that ants can't 
speak, at least they can't speak English; 
and so can't make themselves understood to 
us, though there is no doubt that they have 
some way of speaking, or, of making them- 
selves understood, to one another. But though 
they are not able to come and teach us, yet we 
can go to them and learn. And this is just 
what Solomon tells us to do in the text. He 
says " Go to the ant, — consider her ways, and 
be. wise. 11 This is what we are now going to 
do. We are going to the ant " to consider 
her ways," that is, to inquire how she lives, 
and labors, and to find out what useful lessons 
we can learn from her. 

I wish to speak of jive lessons we may learn 
from the ant. 



LESSONS FROM THE ANT. 75 

The first of these is a lesson of Industry. 

We speak of " the little busy bee " as teach- 
ing us a lesson of industry ; and so it does ; 
but the ant is a better example of industry 
even than the bee. Suppose we go and look 
at one of these ant settlements. We may call 
it a village, or town of ants. It is under- 
ground of course. But suppose we could just 
lift off the covering, and look at what is going 
on ; what a busy scene we should behold ! 
This little town has more inhabitants than 
New York or Philadelphia. Now let us go 
into the nursery department first. Here we 
look into a little room. The floor is covered 
all over with little white things, about the size 
of a grain of rice or wheat. These are called 
larvce. They are the baby-ants. Now, they 
don't look like ants at all, but rather like little 
grubs or worms. But they are the young ants, 
or ants in their baby-state. There are thou- 
sands upon thousands of them. And there is 
an amazing amount of work to be done for 
them. Those ants that you see there, going 
about among these babies, are the nurses. They 



76 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

have a pretty busy time of it, and need to be 
yery industrious. Only see what they have to 
do. The babies must be kept clean. Hence 
you will see some of the nurses going about 
among the little ones and wiping off every bit 
of dirt they see upon them. They have no 
towels or napkins to do this with, but they do it 
very nicely with their hands, or what are called 
their antennce, or feelers. Then these babies 
have to be fed, two or three times a day, and to 
do this for so many of them is no small job. 
And then the babies require to be often moved 
about, from one part of the house to the other. 
They must be kept in just a certain degree of 
warmth, or else they will die. The ants have 
no thermometers to tell how warm it is, for 
God has taught them to find this out without 
a thermometer. They can't regulate the heat 
in their nurseries as we can. When ours are 
too cool, we only have to stir up the fire and 
put a little more coal on. If it is too warm, 
we shut up the register from the furnace, or 
open the room door, and the trouble is soon 
remedied. But when it is too cold in the ants' 



LESSONS FROM THE ANT. 77 

nursery they have to carry their babies to an- 
other part where it is warmer. Every morn- 
ing, after the sun is up, they have to carry all 
their babies, one by one, to the upper rooms 
where the sunbeams make it warm. And 
then, before the sun sets, they carry them all 
down again to the lower rooms, where they 
are protected from the cold night air. And 
this they continue to do, day after day, as long 
as they live, without ever getting tired. What 
examples of industry these ants are ! 

And now let us go out of the nursery, and 
look at the working ants, or laborers. Here 
we may learn the same lesson of industry. 
These laboring ants have to provide food for 
their large household. All the day long they 
may be found toiling patiently, endeavoring to 
carry provisions to their homes. There is no 
better school in the world, in which to learn the 
lesson of industry, than in a settlement of ants. 
There are no idlers about their establishments. 
Every one has something to do. You will see 
one loaded with a grain of wheat, another with 
a dead fly, — another with a bit of sugar, and 
7* 



78 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

another, perhaps, with a little piece of wood, 
which is wanted at home, for some purpose or 
other. If an ant finds the body of some dead 
insect, such as a bee, for instance, which is too 
large for him to carry, by himself, he will hurry 
back to the settlement, and get two or three of 
his friends to come and help him. Then they will 
take hold of it together, and never leave it till 
they get it home. If they find it too large to 
be carried into their door, they will break it 
up, and carry it in, piece by piece. A gentle- 
man saw an ant dragging along a piece of 
wood, so large that he could barely get on with 
it, on level ground. By and by he came to a 
steep little hill, in his way home. He tried to 
get up the hill, but the little log rolled him 
down again. He tried it four or five times, 
with no better success. Presently two other 
ants came along. The little fellow ran up to 
them, as if to tell them of his trouble. Then 
they turned back and helped him up the hill. 
As soon as they got on level ground again the 
two helpers went about their business, and left 
their friend to get on by himself. 



LESSORS FROM THE ANT. 79 

They never leave home without having some 
special business to attend to, and never go back 
again without carrying something with them, 
or having news to tell of something useful 
which has been discovered, and which requires 
the help of others. And, when one of them 
comes to tell that he has found a piece of sugar, 
or bread, or any kind of fruit, even though it is 
in the highest story of a large house, they im- 
mediately form themselves in a line, and march 
after their leader, till they reach the prize he 
has told them of, and then they work on, with- 
out stopping, till it is all stowed away in their 
homes. They work from morning till night, 
and when it is moonlight, at least, they often 
work all through the night. 

AVhat an example to lazy, idling people, 
whether young or old, the ants are, in this re- 
spect ! Let us never despise these worthy lit- 
tle creatures. But when we feel tempted to 
indolence in our studies, or our work, let us 
think of the text,—" Go to the ant : — consider 
her ways and be wise." 



80 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

Our first lesson from the ant is a lesson of 
industry. 

Our second lesson from the ant is a lesson of 

PERSEVERANCE. 

The ant is quite as remarkable for its perse- 
verance as for its industry. They never seem 
to get discouraged by the difficulties that meet 
them in what they are doing. If an unlucky 
horse or cow happens to tread upon their town, 
and crush a dozen or more of their houses, they 
stop whatever else they are doing, and go to 
work to repair the damage done. If the same 
thing occurs again the next day, or every day 
for a week, still they are ready, in a moment, 
to clear away the ruins and make the best of 
what they can't help. 

A gentleman was once watching an ant hill 
that had been broken up. He saw one of the 
nurses which had one of her hind legs taken off 
in the crash ; yet she went to work at once, to 
help to remove their young to a place of safety, 
and this poor wounded creature actually suc- 
ceeded, herself, in carrying away ten of the baby 



LESSONS FROM THE ANT. 81 

ants to their new settlement, before the repairs 
were completed. What wonderful perseverance 
that was ! 

Sometimes the ants have taught this lesson 
in a way that has led to very important results, 
when they little thought how much good they 
were doing. There was once a celebrated 
king and conqueror known as Timour, the 
Tartar. On one occasion he was defeated in 
battle, and, in fleeing from his enemies, he 
sought shelter in an old ruined building. Here 
he was obliged to spend many hours, being 
afraid to venture out lest he should be seen 
and taken, or killed. Separated from his 
friends, alone, helpless, and not knowing what 
would happen to him next, he naturally felt 
very sad and discouraged. As he lay stretched 
out, to rest himself upon the floor of the ruined 
building, thinking about what he should do, he 
noticed a little ant, carrying something about 
as big as itself. He watched it as it made its 
way across the floor. Presently it came to the 
wall, and tried to get up with its load. But 
the burden was too heavy for it, and down 



82 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

they both tumbled together. Not discouraged, 
however, it tried again, and tumbled again. 
Again it tried, and again it tumbled. Still the 
persevering little creature wouldn't give it up. 
Timour became very much interested in watch- 
ing the ant. Sixty-nine times she tried to get 
up the wall ; and sixty-nine times she tumbled 
down. But she tried the seventieth time and 
succeeded. She carried her burden at last to 
the top of the wall. 

Timour said afterwards to his friends, " That 
sight gave me courage, and I never forgot it." 
He went to the ant ; considered her ways and 
was wise. He learned a lesson of perseverance. 
This is one of the most important lessons we 
have to learn. All the good men, and all the 
great men in the world have learned this lesson. 
And if we want to be good and great we must 
learn it. We can't begin too soon. The very 
youngest of you, my dear children, even these 
little infant children, should learn and practice 
this lesson every day. Never say, " I can't." 
By God's help and by trying you can do almost 
anything. 



LESSONS FROM THE ANT. 83 

I never quoted Latin in a children's sermon 
before, but I'm going to do it now. There is 
an old proverb, of just three words, which 
comes in so nicely here that I must quote it. 
The proverb is, " Perseverantia vincit omnia." 
The meaning is, Perseverance conquers all things. 
This is worth remembering. I suppose the 
ants don't understand Latin ; but it is very 
clear that they understand all about this prov- 
erb, and they practice it well. 

A lady, once was going by a ropewalk. At 
one end of the building she saw a little boy, 
about nine years old, turning a large wheel. 
He had to turn that wheel five hours every 
day. He only received about eighteen cents a 
day for his work. But he had a poor sick 
mother at home, and he was glad to be able to 
do anything to help her. 

" My little fellow," said the lady to him ; 
" don't you ever get tired of turning this great 
wheel?" 

" Yes, ma'am, sometimes," said he. 

" And what do you do then ?" asked the lady. 

" I take tlie other hand." 



84 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

That was right. It was a noble reply. That 
little fellow understood about the Latin prov- 
erb. He was practicing, upon it. I have no 
doubt that boy will make his mark in the 
world. It is a great thing to know how to 
take the other hand. Oh, don't give up, and be- 
gin to fret and cry, as soon as you feel tired ; 
but just take the other hand. " Perseverance 
conquers all things." The second lesson we 
learn from the ants is a lesson of perseverance. 

But we go to the ant again for our third lesson, 
and this is a lesson of union. 

I mean by this, that we may learn from them 
the benefits of being united, and of working 
together. Take a single ant, and what an 
insignificant little creature it is. . You can 
blow it away with a breath. You can crush it 
with your little finger. If the ants should 
break up their union with one another, and try 
to live by themselves, or in little companies of 
half a dozen, or a dozen together, very soon 
they would all perish. It is being united 
together that makes them strong, and enables 
them to build their houses, and store them with 



LESSONS PROM THE ANT. 85 

provisions, and take care of their young, and 
protect themselves from danger. The ants 
know this very well, and therefore they all go 
in strongly for union. We hear a great deal, 
now-a-days, about * secession. Some of our 
friends in the Southern part of our country, 
want to break up the Union of these United 
States, the glorious old Union which Washing- 
ton, and the heroes of the Revolution made. 
They think they could get along better by 
themselves. Ah ! if those mistaken people 
would only " Go to the ant and consider her 
ways" they would soon become wiser than this. 
What a valuable lesson they might learn from 
the ants on this subject ! 

It is by their union with one another that the 
ants are often enabled to preserve themselves 
from being entirely destroyed. In some parts 
of South America the rivers overflow their 
banks, and flood the country around, at certain 
seasons of the year. In those places the ants 
build their houses from three to six feet high, 
above ground. They do this, like the builders 
of the tower of Babel, to protect themselves 
8 



86 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

from being swept away by the floods. But 
even this does not always succeed. Sometimes 
the very tops of their highest houses will be 
overflowed. Then the ants have nothing but 
their strong union feeling to preserve themselves 
from destruction. They do it in this way. A 
number of the very strongest among them will 
go and take firm hold of some tree, or shrub, 
with their fore claws or feet. Then some oth- 
ers will take hold of their hind feet, and others 
again of theirs, till thousands upon thousands 
of them are bound together, forming a great 
living chain of ants, and thus they float upon 
the surface of the water, anchored, safely to 
the tree, by the strong grasp of their friends, 
till the floods have rolled away, and they can 
go back to their homes. Here we see how the 
ants are saved from destruction by their love 
of union. 

And this union of the ants not only saves 
them from destruction, it also enables them to do 
great good, which they never could do if they 
were not thus united. In some parts of South 
America the ants act as the scavengers, or sweep- 



LESSONS FROM THE ANT. 87 

ers, or cleaners of the country. They make their 
appearance, in immense numbers, every two 
or three years, and their object seems to be to 
cleanse or purify the country. The people are 
glad to see them come, and throw open their 
houses for them to come in. The ants march 
in troops, like huge armies. They go through 
every room, find their way into every nook and 
corner, every hole and crack, and destroy all 
the rats and mice, and scorpions, and cock- 
roaches, and other vermin, and then quietly go 
back to the forests, where they came from. 

An English gentleman was living in this part 
of the country once, who didn't understand the 
nature of these visits. He had not " been to 
the ants to consider their ways." He was not 
wise in regard to them. He was walking in 
his garden one morning, when he heard his 
servant calling out, " The ants are coming ! the 
ants are coming !" " Well," says he, " let 'em 
come." He didn't know what this meant. 
But on entering his house he found' a solid col- 
umn of ants, about ten inches wide, pouring, 
like a stream of dark water into his dwelling. 



88 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

He seized a broom and tried to sweep them 
away, but in vain. He got some molasses and 
tried to stop their progress by pouring this out 
before them. But they passed on, making a 
bridge over the molasses, out of the bodies of 
their companions, and still they pressed on. 
Then he got a kettle of boiling water, and 
poured it on them. But though he broke their 
ranks for a few moments, and destroyed vast 
multitudes of them ; still, for every one killed, 
there seemed to come a thousand more. Pres- 
ently their broken ranks were formed again, 
and on they went. The Englishman was fairly 
beaten. He was obliged to surrender and leave 
his house in possession of these invaders. Soon 
after he had to go off on some business till the 
latter part of the day. 

On speaking to one of the natives about 
what had occurred, the native told him that 
they considered these ants one of their greatest 
blessings. The Englishman shook his head, 
and said : 

"Well, it seems to me you must be very 
badly off in this country for blessings, if 



LESSONS FEOM THE ANT. 89 

you have to reckon these things among 
them/' 

But when he came home in the evening he 
changed his mind. The house he occupied had 
been overrun with all sorts of vermin. On 
entering it there was not an ant to "be seen. 
The only trace of their having been there 
was found in the scattered bones of rats and 
mice ; the hard shells of beetles and roaches, 
their legs and wings, and the husks of eggs, — ■ 
all of which had been devoured. The ants 
were all gone, and the house was left perfectly 
free from vermin. This iocis a blessing indeed. 
Those little creatures had come as missionaries 
of purity and cleanliness. And they had ful- 
filled their mission well. But if they had not 
been united together what could they have 
done? 

And so it is with us. Whether in the 
nation — in the Church — in the Sunday-school 
— or in the family, it is a great blessing to be 
united. We can keep off a great many evils 
from ourselves, and do good to others, in many 
ways, if we are united, which we never can do 
8* 



90 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

when separated. Let us learn from the ant a 
lessoji of nnion. And let us do all we can to 
promote union : — union in our country ; — union 
in our Church ; — union in our School ; — union 
in our families. There is strength in union ; 
there is safety in union ; there is blessing in 
union. 

But we "go to the ant" again, and the fourth 
lesson we learn from her is a lesson of kind- 
ness. 

Although they have so much to do, and 
work so hard, they seem to be a very happy 
set of little creatures. Sometimes they have a 
little holiday, or recess time together, and 
then they may be seen having nice fun with 
each other. Their favorite amusement at such 
times, is in wrestling and racing matches. And 
those who have spent much time in watching 
them say it is very amusing to notice their 
different tricks and pranks. A gentleman says 
he observed one species of ants, who at such 
times are very fond of carrying one another on 
their backs, very much after the manner that 
boys call pig-a-bach The ant to be carried 



LESSONS PROM THE ANT. 91 

will throw his front legs round the neck of the 
one that carries him, and cling to the other 
part of the body with his hind legs, and so 
told on while he gets his ride, after the style 
of the celebrated John Gilpin, of whom the 
poet Cowper wrote so humorously. When they 
get through their rides they let each other 
down very gently. Boys and girls might learn 
a lesson in gentleness from seeing the ants at 
play. 

There seems to be nothing like selfishness 
among ants. If one of their number has a 
heavier burden to carry than he can get along 
with, another will come and help him. They 
act faithfully up to that good Bible rule which 
tells us to " bear one another's burdens." If 
one of them is in trouble or distress, it excites 
the sympathy of the others, and they do all 
they can to help and comfort him. A gentle- 
man who was watching some ants, one day, 
took a pair of scissors and cut off one of the 
antennce r or feelers, of a little fellow. It seemed 
to give him a good deal of distress and pain. 
Presently, some of his companions came up to 



92 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

him, and evidently pitying his distress, seemed 
to be trying to comfort him, and they actually 
anointed the wounded limb with some trans- 
parent fluid from their mouths. 

Sometimes, when one of their laborers is 
accidentally wounded at his work, he is taken 
to one of their rooms, which is used as a kind 
of a hospital, where he is taken care of till he 
gets well again. But if they find he can't be 
cured, and isn't likely to be useful any more, 
they take no more care of him, but throw his 
body out among the rubbish of their settle- 
ment. 

When the young ones are being fed, the 
nurses always attend to the smallest of them 
first ; and the older ones never touch the food, 
but keep quiet and still, until their littler 
brothers have been fed and are satisfied. 
Here they set a very good example, and one 
worthy of being followed by the young in all 
our families. 

If one of their companions is threatened with 
an attack, the others will all join together for 
his defence. 



LESSONS FKOM THE ANT. 93 

They are all the time trying to promote 
each other's welfare. Those who go abroad 
bring food home, for those who are building 
their houses, or taking care of their young. 
And if one of them, in going about, happens to 
find a lot of nice provisions, he scampers back 
as fast as he can to tell his friends at home 
about it, and to show them the way to it. 

A lady once had a pot of molasses, which 
she found infested by ants. She tried various 
ways to keep them from getting at it, but all 
in vain. At last she fastened a cord round the 
vessel which held it, and let it hang down from 
a hook in the ceiling. Now it happened that 
there was just one single ant left upon that 
vessel. The lady thought she had swept them 
all off, before she hung it up. But this little 
fellow had escaped her notice. When he found 
himself alone with that ocean of sweetness, he 
ate as much as he wanted. Then he mounted 
the rope. He climbed up it to the ceiling. He 
crossed the ceiling ; — he marched down the 
wall, and made straight tracks, for home. As 
soon as he arrived he told his friends he had 



94 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

found the molasses, and was ready to show 
them the way. Directly a great company of 
them were ready to follow him. They formed 
in a line of march. He headed the line and 
led them down that cord into the " happy val- 
ley " at the foot of it. At once they attacked 
the molasses. Each one took a load and started 
for home. Pretty soon there were two lines 
of ants to be seen along that cord : one was 
going up, full — the other was coming down, 
empty. They never stopped till they had left 
that vessel perfectly clean of molasses. And 
when the good lady came to take down her 
molasses, — behold, — it wasn't there. 

Of course, ants never heard the eighth com- 
mandment. They know nothing about stealing. 
It is perfectly right for them to lay their hands 
on everything they find that suits them. And 
these things that I have mentioned show that 
they are real noble little fellows. They are 
polite and kind, full of tenderness and sym- 
pathy. They are always ready to help and 
comfort one another. They have no selfishness, 
but are ready, at once, to share all the good 



LESSONS FROM THE ANT. 95 

things they get with others. These are excel- 
lent qualities. And if we imitate the ants in 
these things, we shall be kind to the poor and 
needy. And when we have learned to love 
Jesus, and find how happy it makes us to serve 
Him, we shall want to send the gospel to those 
who are without it. Like the little New Zea- 
land girl in England, who, when she became a 
Christian, wanted to go back to her own coun- 
try and tell her friends about Jesus, we shall 
be ready to say — " Do you think we can keep 
the good news to ourselves ?" We learn from 
the ants a lesson of kindness. 

We " go to the ant " once more, and the fifth 
and last lesson we learn from her is a lesson 

OF PRUDENCE. 

The word prudence is made up of two Latin 
words, the meaning of which is looking ahead, 
or seeing before. You know what a telescope 
is. It is an instrument to help us to see things 
that are far off in regard to distance. The 
word telescope means seeing at a distance, or 
seeing through a distance. Now, if we could 
have a similar instrument to enable us to see 



96 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

things that are far off in regard to time, that 
would be a great invention. We might call it 
a chronoscopy That would mean an instrument 
for looking through time. Then, at the begin- 
ning of the year, we could just take a peep 
through our chronoscope, and tell, in a minute, 
all that was going to happen during the year. 
We should know when it was going to rain, 
and when the weather would be fine. We 
should know who was going to be sick, and 
who to be well ; — who was going to live, and 
who to die. But that would be knowing more 
than would be good for us. God might have 
given us such an instrument if he had thought 
best. But it wasn't best, and so He has not 
given it to us. To take the place of it, how- 
ever, He has given us what we call prudence. 
This means the power to think about the future 
and make preparation for it. And this pru- 
dence the ants have in a remarkable degree. I 
don't mean to say that the ants think and rea- 
son as we do. But still they act as though 
they did. God teaches them what to do with- 
out thinking, just as He does the birds, and the 



LESSONS FROM THE ANT. 97 

bees, and the beavers. And this power in 
animals, which enables them to know how to 
work and get their living, we call instinct. 
Nobody knows what instinct is, only it 
is that which enables animals to do, without 
thinking or learning, what we do by learning 
and thinking. 

Solomon says, in the verses just after our 
text, that the ant, " having no guide, overseer, 
or ruler, yet provideth her meat in the summer, 
and gathereth her food in the harvest." It used 
to be thought that the ants lived all through 
the winter on the food which they laid up in 
the summer. But in our climate, when the 
cold weather comes, the ants remain in a tor- 
pid condition as if asleep, and don't need any- 
thing to eat. But it was different in a warm 
country like that in which Solomon lived. 
There, the winters are not so cold as to put the 
ants to sleep, or make them torpid. But then 
they have long rainy seasons, too, in which ants 
can't go out to gather food. During those 
seasons they live on the food which they 
have laid up, during summer-time and harvest. 
9 



98 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

And thus it is they teach us a lesson of 
prudence. 

There is a fable told of The Ant and the 
Grasshopper. A poor grasshopper, who had 
outlived the summer, and was ready to perish 
with cold and hunger, happened to come near 
to a settlement of ants, who were living happily 
in their well-stored home. He humbly begged 
them to spare him a morsel of food from their 
plentiful stores. One of the ants asked him 
what he had been doing all summer, and how 
it happened that he had not laid up a stock 
of food as they had done. "Alas ! gentlemen," 
said the poor, starving grasshopper, " I passed 
the time merrily and pleasantly, in drinking, 
singing and dancing, and never once thought 
of winter." 

" If that be the case," said the ant, " all I 
have to say is that they who drink, sing and 
dance in summer, must starve in winter." 

We should follow the example of the ants, 
while we are young, by preparing for the future 
of the present life. It is our summer, our har- 
vest-time, while we are young. This is the 



LESSONS FROM THE ANT. 99 

time for us to get ready for what is before us, 
when we become men and women. We should 
be diligent in learning all we can, and storing 
our minds with useful knowledge. This will 
help to make us useful and happy when we 
grow up. But, if, like the grasshopper in sum- 
mer, we are idle, and careless, and think of 
nothing but fun and frolic, we shall be ignorant 
and good for nothing when we grow up. Oh, 
then my dear children, learn well from the ant 
this lesson of prudence. Form good habits 
now. Be industrious. Be persevering. Learn 
all you can now, and then, when you go out 
into the world, you will be ready to do your 
duty well. You will be loved and honored by 
all who know you. 

But tve should follow the example of the ants 
also in preparing for the life to come. That 
life will never end. This life is the harvest- 
time which God has given us, in which to make 
preparation for that life. I spoke a little while 
ago about a chronoscope, an instrument for 
looking into the future with, and finding out 
what we should do to make us ready for it. 



100 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

"We have such an instrument. The Bible is 
our chronoscope for eternity. We can look 
through this, and see just what we want to 
make us happy after death. It shows us that 
we must have our sins pardoned, and our hearts 
changed : — we must love and serve Jesus. 
Then all that we do for Him will be like food 
prepared, or money laid up for us in heaven. 
Eternity is like a long winter. Those who do 
not love and serve Jesus are going on to meet 
it without any preparation. 

There was once a rich nobleman who kept a 
fool. This was a person whose office it was to 
do and say funny things, so as to make those 
about him laugh, and be merry. The noble- 
man gave the fool a staff, as a sign of his office, 
telling him to keep it till he found some one 
who was a greater fool than himself. Not 
many years after, the nobleman was taken 
sick, and was going to die. The fool went to 
see him. 

" I must shortly leave you," said the noble- 
man. 

" And whither art thou going ?" 



LESSONS FKOM THE ANT. 101 

" Into the other world/' said his lordship. 

" And when will you return again ? within a 
month ?" 

" No." 

" Within a year ?" 

" No." 

"When, then?" 

" Never." 

" Never ?" said the fool, " and what prepara- 
tion and provision hast thou made for so long 
a journey, and for being happy there ?" 

" None at all," said the nobleman. 

"Here, then, tak-e my staff," said the fool, 
" for with all my nonsense I am not guilty of 
such folly as this." 

To be going into eternity without prepara- 
tion is the greatest of all folly. 

We have learned five lessons from the ant. 
These are, a lesson of industry ; a lesson of per- 
severance; a lesson of union; a lesson of kind- 
ness; and a lesson of prudence. Now let us all 
pray God to give us grace to go and practice 
these lessons. 

There is a beautiful collect in the Prayer- 



102 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

Book, the collect for the First Sunday after the 
Epiphany, in which we are taught to pray — 
" that we may both perceive, and know, what 
things we ought to do, and also may have 
grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same." 
Let this be our prayer, and then we shall be 
able with good effect to " go to the ant, — to 
consider her ways, and be wise I" 



IV. 



"To him that soweth righteousness, shall be a sure 
reward." — Prov. xi. 18. 



IV. 



" To him that soweth righteousness, shall be a sure reward. 
-Prov. xi. 18. 



Suppose it is early spring. We are in the 
country, going by a newly-ploughed field. There 
we see a man walking deliberately over the 
field. He has a bag under his arm, fastened 
across his shoulders. As he walks on, he keeps 
putting his hand in the bag. He takes it out 
full of something which he scatters around him 
on the ground. What is he doing? He is 
sowing seed. Perhaps it is wheat, early spring 
wheat. It may be rye ; or, very possibly, it 
may be oats that he is sowing. We know it 
is some kind of grain. This is a very common 
thing in the country. You may always see it 
done there in the fall and in the spring. Al- 
most every farmer has more or less to do in 
sowing grain. But did you ever hear of a 
farmer sowing righteousness in his field? It 
sounds very strange to talk about sowing right- 

(105) 



106 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

eousness. We understand what it means to 
sow flower seeds in our gardens, or grain in our 
fields ; but to talk about sowing righteousness 
is not quite so plain. Now, before we go on, 
let us see if we can find out what righteous- 
ness means. 

In the Bible, a righteous person is one who 
loves and serves God, i. e., one who is a true 
Christian. And when people become true 
Christians themselves, they want to do all they 
can to try to make other people Christians. 
And all the good things that such people do in 
this way, the Bible calls righteousness. Solving, 
in the text, means doing. Righteousness, in 
the text, means kind acts, good works of any 
kind, that Christian people do, out of love to 
Jesus, and from a desire to make others love 
Him. And thus we find out that "sowing 
righteousness" means doing good. Suppose 
we should put these two words instead of the 
others in our text, then it would read in this 
way — " To him that doeth good shall be a sure 
reward." The minister of the gospel is sowing 
righteousness, or doing good, when he preaches 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 107 

the gospel of Jesus to his fellow-men. The 
Sunday-school teacher is sowing* righteousness, 
or doing good, when he sits down with his class 
to explain the Bible to them, and try to show 
them the way to heaven. The tract distributor 
is sowing righteousness, or doing good, who 
carries his little books, like leaves from the 
tree of life, and puts them in the hands, or the 
homes of those who are forgetting God and 
breaking his laws. John Howard was sowing 
righteousness, or doing good, when he went 
through the principal cities of Europe, like an 
angel of mercy, trying to improve the con- 
dition of the poor, wretched prisoners, and to 
have them comfortably fed and clothed, and 
taken care of. John Williams, the martyr 
missionary of Erromanga, was sowing right- 
eousness, or doing good, when he built that 
little schooner, The Messenger of Peace, in 
order that he might sail to other heathen 
islands, and tell the poor, ignorant people there 
the way to heaven. Christian men or women, 
Christian boys or girls, who visit the poor and 
the sick in their affliction, who feed the hungry, 



108 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

and clothe the naked, and try to comfort those 
who are in distress and trouble, are sowing 
righteousness, or doing good. Sunday-school 
teachers and scholars who work with their own 
hands, or save from their own earnings, that 
they may make an offering to God, in order to 
spread the Gospel abroad, and bless both the 
souls and bodies of men, are sowing righteous- 
ness, or doing good. Remember, then, that 
sowing righteousness means doing good. And 
" to him that soweth righteousness shall be a 
sure reward." 

Some years ago, I preached a number of 
sermons about the best things. If we were on 
that course still, we might put this sermon 
among them, and call it the best seed, or, the best 
sowing. Righteousness is the best seed in the 
world to sow. 

I want to give you three reasons why it is 
so. Righteousness is the best seed to sow, 

In the first place, because of the size of the 
field in which this solving may be carried on. 

The field in which this work is carried on is 
very large. Suppose we should visit some of 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 109 

the farms in the adjoining country, in order to 
find out the general size of the fields in which 
the farmers sow their grain. If we should see 
a field about as large as the whole of Washing- 
ton Square, we should think that a pretty good 
sized field. Yet that would only contain about 
two or three acres. Perhaps some of the lar- 
gest fields we should see would contain ten or 
twelve acres. Such a field would be four or 
five times as large as Washington Square. 
Out in our Western States there are corn-fields 
containing as many as five or six hundred, or 
a thousand acres of land. But still, however 
large these grain fields are, they are nothing 
when compared with the field in which right- 
eousness is sown. When Jesus was telling 
his disciples the size of it, He said, " The field 
is the world" This makes a very large field. 
I cannot begin to tell you how many acres 
there are in this field. Hundreds, thousands, 
millions of acres, compared to the whole of 
this field, would only be like a drop of water 
compared to all that is in the ocean. 

If you wish to sow wheat, or rye, or barley, 
10 



110 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

you must go to some particular spot ; to some 
field that lias been ploughed and prepared for 
the grain. But if you want to sow righteous- 
ness, to do good to men, the field is lying round 
you wherever you go. You can sow righteous- 
ness" everywhere. I can't sow wheat in this 
pulpit, but I can sow righteousness here. The 
teachers of your Sunday-school can't sow wheat 
in their school, as they sit with their classes, 
but they can sow righteousness there. You 
can't sow wheat at home, while studying your 
lessons, or attending to the duties you have to 
perform, but you can sow righteousness there. 
When you are on your way to school, or play- 
ing with your companions during recess, you 
can't be sowing wheat there, but you may be 
sowing righteousness. If you go through some 
of the lanes and alleys of our city, and visit 
the poor and the sick, in their garrets or cel- 
lars, those are no places to sow wheat in, but 
ah! they are grand places in which to sow 
righteousness. Here is a vessel at sea. She 
is on her way round Cape Horn, bound to 
California. The crew and passengers together 






THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Ill 

make a large company of people. They expect 
to be at sea for weeks and months. The cap- 
tain of that vessel can't sow wheat, or rye, or 
any such like seed while he is at sea. But 
if he is a Christian man, he can be sowing 
righteousnes all through the voyage. 

You know what sort of a country Greenland 
is. It lies far up towards the north pole. It 
is one of the coldest countries in the world. 
There are huge mountains of ice that never 
melt, and vast tracts of snow, hundreds of 
miles in extent, that never disappear. Green- 
land is no place to sow wheat or rye in. If 
hundreds of bushels were sown, not a single 
grain would ever grow. But the Moravian 
missionaries have been there, for years, sowing- 
righteousness, and what they have sown has 
taken root, has sprung up, and grown, and 
yielded abundant fruit. 

You know, too, what sort of a country 
Africa is. In some parts it is very fertile and 
beautiful. In other parts it is very barren. 
There are great sandy deserts, where no water 
is found. The sun blazes down upon them 



112 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

with a dreadful, scorching heat. Nothing can 
grow there. Those burning deserts are not 
the place in which to sow grain, and expect it 
to grow. But we can sow righteousness even 
there ; we can do good in the name of Jesus, 
and the seed will grow and yield fruit. You 
know that people travel over those deserts on 
camels, and go in great companies, called cara- 
vans. Some time -since, one of these caravans 
was going across an African desert. When 
they halted for the night, one of the company, 
who lived in those parts, was taken suddenly 
ill. It was soon seen that he was going to die. 
An English missionary, in the caravan, went 
to the side of the sick man before he died. 
He had only time to speak a few words to 
him. 

" Are you afraid to die, my friend ?" asked 
he. 

" No, sir," said the dying man. 

" What is your hope?" asked the missionary. 

" Jesus," was his whispered reply, as he sunk 
back and expired. The missionary saw some- 
thing in the closed hand of the dead man. He 






THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 113 

opened it, and found there, a torn piece of a 
leaf of the New Testament, on which these 
words were printed — " The blood of Jesus 
Christ his son cleanseth from all sin," Some 
body had been sowing righteousness in this 
man's path. Here was a single grain of the 
good seed which had taken root. The fruit 
of that one grain was the saving of a precious 
soul. 

" The field for sowing righteousness is so 
large that you never can get out of it. Wher- 
ever you go, you are in it still. Wherever you 
stay, it is all around you. At church, or at 
school — at home, or in the street — in the city, 
or in the country — on land, or on the the sea — 
in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in America, in 
the islands of the sea, wherever you are placed, 
in any part of this round earth, the field is 
always about you. And I think you will admit 
that righteousness is the best seed to sow, be- 
cause of the size of tlie field. 

But, secondly, righteousness is the best seed to 
sow, because of the number and kind of 

SOWERS. 

10* 



114 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

None but farmers sow grain in the earth ; 
and farmers make but a small part of a nation. 
Only a few persons therefore can be sowers of 
grain, but there is no end to the number of 
persons who may be sowers of righteousness. 
All the people in the world may engage in this 
work, if they will become Christians, and learn 
to love Jesus. 

And then farmers are only one class of men ; 
but all classes of persons may be sowers of 
righteousness. 

We don't allow our females to go out into 
the fields, and sow grain ; but we allow them 
all to go out wherever they please, and sow 
righteousness. And there are a great many 
more of this kind of 'sowers among the females, 
than among the males. Our mothers, and sis- 
ters, and aunts, are generally much more busily 
engaged in sowing righteousness than our 
fathers, and brothers, and uncles are. It ought 
not to be so, but so it is. 

We don't allow our young children to go out 
into the fields and sow grain. It is not proper 
work for thorn. They are not big enough, or 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 115 

strong enough to do it. But sowing righteous- 
ness is proper work for children to engage in ; 
even very little children may engage in this 
work. 

A little pet child, about six years old, 
began to go to Sunday-school two years ago. 
He had not been going long before he learned 
three important lessons. They took strong- 
hold of his mind. These were the three lessons : 

That God made him. 

That God was good. 

That he ought to love God and pray to Him. 

One Sunday afternoon he came home from 
school. He climbed up into his father's lap 
and began to ask him questions. 

" Papa," said he, " who made you ?" 

" God made me, my son." 

"Who made ma?" 

" God made ma ; He made everything." 

" Papa, I love God for making me ; do you 
love God, too, for making you ?" 

" Yes ;" said his father, before he knew what 
he was saying. But he was not a Christian ; 
he did not love God. His conscience troubled 



116 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

him for telling a lie to his little boy. He be- 
gan to think of his sins. He soon became 
a Christian and joined the Church, together 
with his wife. Soon after this, little Oscar, this 
was his name., was taken sick. God sent his 
angel for him. " Papa," said he, " Fm going to 
die. I shall soon see God." He was sent into 
the world to be a little sower of righteousness. 
He sowed the seed of righteousness in the 
heart of his father and his mother, and then 
God took him home to heaven. 

If you were a poor sick cripple, confined, all 
the time, to your bed, you could not go out into 
the fields and sow grain ; but you might be 
sowing righteousness all the time. 

There is a poor colored woman, living down 
Tenth Street. Her name is Hannah Carson. 
She has not a cent in the world of her own. 
She depends entirely On charity for her support. 
For fifteen years she has never lifted her hand 
to her head. If you go in to see her she can't 
shake hands with you. She is not able to move 
a single joint of her body. She could no more 
go out into the field and scatter a handful of 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 117 

grain there than she could fly. But she is sow- 
ing righteousness all the time. She never mur- 
murs or complains. She loves Jesus, and He 
gives her grace to be always resigned, cheerful, 
and happy. By her example she is preaching 
powerful sermons to all who see her. Thus 
she is sowing righteousness. 

I was reading lately of a poor woman, who 
made her living by selling apples in the market. 
This woman had a little daughter* The child 
of a poor apple woman, what could she do ? 
In sowing seed for the farmer she could do 
nothing. But in sowing righteousness, we shall 
see directly what she could do. She was taken 
to a Sunday-school. There she became a Chris- 
tian. Then, like a little missionary, she per- 
suaded two other poor little girls to attend the 
same school with her. They both learned to love 
the Saviour, and became devoted Christians. 
When these girls grew up to the age of fifteen, 
or sixteen years, they were removed to another 
part of the country, where there were no Sab- 
bath-schools, and where nobody tried to teach 
the children about Jesus and heaven. They 



118 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

soon started a Sunday-school there. It grew 
and prospered, and did so much good, that by- 
and-by another was started, and then another. 
And so it went on, till eleven Sunday-schools 
were established in that part of the country ; 
and all the good that was done by these eleven 
schools could be traced back to the efforts of 
the poor little daughter of the apple woman ! 
Surely, all must admit that righteousness is the 
best kind of seed to sow. 

One day, some years ago, a little girl, about 
eight years old, was sitting on the grass, in 
front of her father's cottage in Prussia. Her 
father was a common laborer. They were very 
poor, and the little girl was very meanly 
dressed ; but she was a little Christian. She 
loved Jesus, and it made her very happy to 
think about Him, and sing sweet hymns in His 
praise. This was just what she was doing at 
the time of which I am speaking. She was 
singing about Jesus, and her eyes were filled 
with tears. While she was singing, Count 
P , a nobleman, who lived in that neigh- 
borhood, was passing by. He was very rich, 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 119 

and indulged in all kinds of wicked pleasures. 
He was an infidel, too, and was very fond of 
making a mock of religion and religious per- 
sons. He heard the little girl's sweet voice as 
she was singing. He saw her happy-looking 
face, and yet her eyes filled with tears, and he 
stopped a moment to talk with her. 

" Why do you weep, my little girl ?" asked 
the count. " Are you sick ?" 

" No, sir," she replied ; " but I am so happy !" 

"How can you weep if you are happy?" 
asked the count, with surprise. 

" Because I love the Lord Jesus Christ so 
much." 

" Why do you love him so much ? He has 
been dead a long time. He can do you no 
good." 

" Oh, no, sir ! He is not dead, He lives in 
heaven." 

" Well, suppose he does, what benefit is that 
to you ? If he could help you, He would give 
money to your mother, that she might buy you 
better clothes." 

" I don't wish for money ; but the Lord Jesus 



120 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

Christ will take me one day to Himself in 
heaven." 

" Pooh ! nonsense/' said the Count, " your 
grandmother, or some such foolish person has 
told you this." 

" No, sir ; it's not nonsense," cried the child, 
" but it's true. I know it's true ; and it makes 
me glad." 

The Count turned and went away ; but he 
could not forget what he had seen and heard. 
The happy face of that sweet child, with her 
bright eyes filled with tears, seemed to be be- 
fore his mind all the time. And her earnest 
words, " It's true ; and it makes me glad," 
were ringing in his ears wherever he went. 
He said to himself, "How strange this is! 
There's nothing in infidelity to make a poor 
child like this so glad. There must be some- 
thing in religion that I don't understand." 
Then he would try to banish these thoughts 
from his mind. But he found it impossible ; 
and after a long and hard struggle he gave up 
his infidelity, and became an earnest and de- 
voted Christian. 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 121 

And so I might go on by the hour giving you 
illustrations to show how people without num- 
ber, and in all conditions of life, may become 
sowers of righteousness. Kings on their thrones, 
and beggars by the wayside ; princes in their 
palaces, and peasants in their huts ; soldiers in 
the army, and sailors on the sea ; learned men, 
and unlearned men ; rich men, and poor men ; 
old men, and little children ; mothers, and 
daughters ; all sorts and kinds of people, when 
they learn to love Jesus, may engage in this 
good work of sowing righteousness. It is the 
best seed to sow because of the number and 
kind of sowers. 

And then the third reason why righteousness 
is the best seed in the world to sow, is, because of 
THE CERTAINTY OF THE REWARD. 

When a farmer sows his field with grain, he 
hopes for his reward in a good harvest ; gener- 
ally he gets it, but he cannot be quite sure 
about it. The frost may come and destroy his 
grain. Or there may be no rain, and the 
drought may kill it. Or the insects may come 
and spoil his crops. Or, he may have a good 
11 



122 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

harvest, and gather the ripened grain into his 
barn, and then the lightning may set fire to it, 
and burn it all up. If a man sows wheat in 
his field he cannot quote the text in reference 
to it, and say, " to him that soweth wheat shall 
be a sure harvest." 

It is only when we are engaged in sowing 
righteousness, that we can look with certainty 
for the reward. The reward of sowing right- 
eousness is made up of pleasure and profit. 

Part of the reward here is made up of pleas- 
ure. This is sure. Let me tell you a story to 
show you how this is. 

Joe Benton lived in the country. Not far 
from his father's house was a large pond. His 
Cousin Herbert had given him a beautiful boat, 
elegantly rigged, with mast, and sails, all ready 
to go to sea on the pond. Joe had formed a 
sailing company among his schoolmates. They 
had elected him captain. The boat was snugly 
stowed away in a little cave, near the pond. 
At three o'clock, on Saturday afternoon, the 
boys were to meet, and launch the boat. On 
the morning of this day Joe rose bright and 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 123 

early. It was a lovely morning. Joe was in 
fine spirits. He chuckled with delight when 
he thought of the afternoon. " Glorious I" said 
he to himself, as he finished dressing. " Now, 
I've just time to run down to the pond, before 
breakfast, and see that the boat is all right. 
Then I'll hurry home and learn my lessons for 
Monday, so as to be ready for the afternoon, for 
the captain must be up to time" 

Away he went, scampering towards the cave 
where the boat had been left, ready for the 
launch. As he drew near he saw signs of mis- 
chief, and felt uneasy. The big stone before 
the cave had been rolled away. The moment 
he looked within he burst into a loud cry. 
There was the beautiful boat, which his cousin 
had given him, with its masts and sails all broken 
to pieces, and a large hole bored in the bottom. 

Joe stood for a moment motionless with 
grief and surprise ; then with his face all red 
with anger, he exclaimed : — " I know who did 
it, — the mean scamp ! It was Fritz Brown ; 
and he was mad because I didn't ask him to 
come to the launch ; but I'll pay him up for this 



124 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

caper, see if I don't." Then he pushed back 
the ruined boat into the cove, and hurrying on, 
some way down the road, he fastened a string 
across the footpath, a few inches from the 
ground, and carefully hid himself in the bushes. 

Presently a step was heard, and Joe eagerly 
peeped out. He expected to see Fritz coming 
along, but instead of that it was his cousin 
Herbert. He was the last person Joe cared to 
see just then, so he unfastened the string, and 
lay quiet, hoping that he would not see him. 
But Herbert's quick eye soon caught sight of 
him, and Joe had to tell him all that had hap- 
pened, and wound up by saying : — " But never 
mind ; I mean to make him smart for it." 

" Well, what do you mean to do, Joe ?" 
asked Herbert. 

"Why, you see, Fritz carries a basket of 
eggs to market every morning, and I mean to 
trip him over this string, and smash 'em all." 

Joe knew that this was not a right feeling, 
and expected to get a sharp lecture from his 
cousin. But, to his surprise, he only said, in a 
quiet way : 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. "125 

" Well, I tliink Fritz does deserve some pun- 
ishment ; but this string is an old trick ; I can 
tell you something better than that." 

" What ?" cried Joe, eagerly. 

" How would you like to put a few coals of 
fire on his head?" 

" What ! burn him ?" asked Joe, doubtfully. 
His cousin nodded his head, with a queer smile. 
Joe clapped his hands. " Bravo I" said he, 
" that's just the thing, Cousin Herbert. You 
see, his hair is so thick he wouldn't get burnt 
much before he'd have time to shake 'em off ; 
but I'd just like to see him jump once. Now, 
tell me how to do it — quick !" 

" ' If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he 
thirst, give him drink ; for in so doing, thou 
shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not 
overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. 7 
There," said Herbert, "that's God's way of 
doing it, and I think that's the best kind of 
punishment that Fritz could have." 

You should have seen how long Joe's face 
grew while Herbert was speaking. " Now, I 
do say, Cousin Herbert," added Joe, " that's a 
11* 



126 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

real take in. Why, it's no punishment at 
all." 

" Try it once," said Herbert. " Treat Fritz 
kindly, and I am certain that he will feel so 
ashamed and unhappy, that kicking or beating 
him would be like fun in comparison." 

Joe was not really a bad boy, but he was 
now in a very ill temper, and he said, sullenly : 
— " But you've told me a story, Cousin Herbert. 
You said this kind of coals would bum, and 
they don't at all." 

" You're mistaken about that," said Herbert. 
" Fve known such coals burn up malice, envy, 
ill-feeling, and a great deal of rubbish, and then 
leave some cold hearts feeling as warm and 
pleasant as possible. 

Joe drew a long sigh. " Well, tell me a good 
coal to put on Fritz's head, and I'll see about it." 

" You know," said Herbert, " that Fritz is 
very poor, and can seldom buy himself a book, 
although he is very fond of reading, but you 
have quite a library. Now suppose — but no, 
I won't suppose anything about it. Just think 
over the matter, and find your own coal. But 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 127 

be sure to kindle it with love, for no other 
fire burns like that." Then Herbert sprang 
over the fence, and went whistling away. 

Before Joe had time to collect his thoughts, 
he saw Fritz coming down the lane carrying a 
basket of eggs in one hand and a pail of milk 
in the other. For a moment the thought 
.crossed Joe's mind, "What a grand smash it 
would have been if Fritz had fallen over the 
string !" but he drove it away in an instant, 
and was glad enough that the string was put 
away in his pocket. Fritz started and looked 
very uncomfortable when he first caught sight 
of Joe, but the good fellow began at once with, 
" Fritz, do you have much time to read now ?" 

" Sometimes," said Fritz, " when I've driven 
the cows home and done all my chores, I have a 
little piece of daylight left ; but the trouble is, 
I've read every book I can get hold of." 

How would you like to take my new book 
of travels ?" 

Fritz's eyes fairly danced. " Oh, may I ? may 
I? I'd be so careful of it." 

" Yes," answered Joe ; " and perhaps I've 



128 - THE SAFE COMPASS. 

some others you'd like to read. And Fritz," 
he added, a little slyly, " I would ask you to 
come and help to sail my new boat this after- 
noon, but some one has gone and broken the 
masts, and torn up the sails, and made a great 
hole in the bottom. Who do you suppose did 
it?" 

Fritz's head dropped on his breast, but after 
a moment he looked up with great effort and 
said : 

" Oh, Joe ! I did it ; but I can't begin to tell 
you how sorry I am. You didn't know I was 
so mean when you promised me the books, did 
you?" 

" Well, I rather thought you did it," said 
Joe, slowly. 

" And yet you didn't — " Fritz couldn't get 
any farther, He felt as if he would choke. His 
face was as red as a coal. He could stand it 
no longer, so off he walked without saying a 
word. 

" That coal does burn," said Joe to himself. 
"I know Fritz would rather I had smashed 
every egg in his basket than offered to lend him 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 129 

that book. But I feel fine." Joe took two or 
three somersets, and went home with a light 
heart, and a grand appetite for breakfast. 

When the captain and crew of the little ves- 
sel met at the appointed hour, they found Fritz 
there before them, eagerly trying to repair the 
injuries, and as soon as he saw Joe he hurried 
to present him with a beautiful flag which he 
had bought for the boat with a part of his egg 
money. The boat was repaired and launched, 
aud made a grand trip, and everything turned 
out as Cousin Herbert had said, for Joe's heart 
was so warm and full of kind thoughts, that he 
never was more happy in his life. And Joe 
found out afterwards, that the more he used of 
this curious kind of coal, the larger supply he 
had on hand, — kind thoughts, kind words, and 
kind actions. " I declare, Cousin Herbert," 
said he, with a queer twinkle in his eye, " I 
think I shall have to set up a coal yard." 

I should be glad to have all of you, my young 
friends, engage in this branch of the coal busi- 
ness. If every family would be careful to keep 
a supply of Joe Benton's coals on hand, and 



130 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

make a good use of them, "how happy they 
would be. Joe was sowing righteousness 
when he put that coal on Fritz's head, and he 
had " a sure reward" in ike pleasure which it 
yielded him, Pleasure is one part of the re- 
ward of sowing righteousness. This is sure. 

The other part of the reward is profit. This 
is sure also. Sometimes the profit of sowing 
righteousness is found here in this life. 

Some years ago, a gentleman in England 
died, leaving a widow and two sons. They 
were quite well off, but the sons were wild, 
dissipated young men, and they soon spent 
most of the property left them. The mother 
had a small sum of her own — about twenty 
pounds. To prevent her sons from spending it 
in wickedness, she gave it to a missionary soci- 
ety, formed for the support of the Gospel in 
India. The young men were very angry when 
they found what their mother had done with it. 
They swore dreadfully, and said it might as 
well have been thrown into the sea. " That 
is what I think," she said ; " for God says in 
His Word, ' Cast thy bread upon the waters, 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 131 

for thou shalt find it after many days.' This 
money may do us all more good by-and-by than 
if we should spend it on ourselves now." In 
giving this money to the Lord, this poor widow 
was sowing righteousness. We shall see di- 
rectly what her reward was. 

When the sons had spent, in their wicked- 
ness, all the money they could get, they enlisted 
in the army and were ordered to India. 

The regiment to which the eldest son be- 
longed was stationed far up the Ganges. But 
there was an English missionary in that neigh- 
borhood ; through his influence that son became 
a Christian. 

His poor mother, lonely and sad, never ex- 
pected to see her sons again when they left her 
for India ; but still she kept on praying for 
them. One day, just after she had been en- 
gaged in earnest prayer, a letter was brought 
her from India. It was from her elder son. 
It told the joyful news of his conversion ; of 
his deep sorrow for his past sins, and his earn- 
est desire for his mother's forgiveness. Half 
unread, the letter dropped from her trembling 



132 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

hand, and, with tears streaming down her 
aged cheeks, she exclaimed — " Oh ! my twenty 
pounds ! my twenty pounds ! the Lord be 
praised for this sure reward I" 

This converted son soon removed to Fort 
William, near Calcutta. Here he met his 
younger brother. He induced him to attend 
the service at the mission, and ere long he too 
became a Christian. 

For a long while the sorrowing mother had 
received no tidings from this younger son. She 
knew not whether he was dead or.alive. For 
days, and weeks, and months, she had hoped and 
longed for news from him, but in vain. At 
length a large package came to hand. It 
brought her help and comfort in her poverty 
in the shape of money ; but, better than that, it 
told her of the happy death of her oldest son, 
and that her youngest son was now a rejoicing 
Christian, through the preaching of a mission- 
ary. " Ah !" she exclaimed in her deep glad- 
ness, "what a faithful God I have trusted in! 
My twenty pounds again! Oh, what a sure 
reward ! " 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. '133 

But this was not all. That younger son left 
the army and became a minister. His old 
mother heard of it with unspeakable joy. But 
she was now tottering on the borders of the 
grave, and never expected to see her darling 
boy again in this world. She was waiting 
every day for death, the messenger Jesus sends 
to call his people home. Little did she think 
of the joy which was awaiting her before she 
went home. Without her knowledge, her 
youngest son had resolved to return to Eng- 
land. It was the close of a bright day in sum- 
mer. The sun had just gone down. The old 
family Bible was opened on the stand. She 
was about to read her evening portion. As 
she leaned a moment on her old oaken arm- 
chair, there was a gentle tap at the door. 
Before she could answer it, it was opened, a 
genteel-looking man, dressed like a clergyman, 
rushed in. He threw his strong arms round 
her, and exclaimed : — " My mother ! Oh, my 
mother I" She clung round his neck, and wept 
her full heart out on his bosom. Then they 
sat down together, and talked over all God's 
12 



134 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

wonderful dealings with them since they had 
been parted. 

Once more the dear old mother exclaimed — 
" Those twenty pounds ! those twenty pounds ! 
Oh, what a reward the Lord has given me for 
them." 

She was sowing righteousness when she gave 
them to the Lord, and to her there was a sure 
reward. She had her reward here in this life. 

But those who sow righteousness will get 
the best part of their reward in heaven. No- 
body has ever come back to tell us what that 
reward is. But I want to tell you how it ap- 
peared to a little boy, who was just going 
there. His name was Eddy. He had learned 
to love Jesus, and had been trying to sow 
righteousness, and now he was going to 
get his reward. He lay upon his dying 
bed. He had been suffering from pain and 
fever, for days, but now his sufferings were al- 
most over. Nothing was heard in that cham- 
ber but the sound of his faint breathing, and 
the sobs of his sorrowing parents and friends, 
who had gathered round his bed. He had been 



THE REWAED OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 135 

silent for some time, and appeared to sleep. 
They thought that perhaps he would pass 
away in sleep ; but suddenly his blue eyes 
opened, wide and clear, and a sweet smile 
played over his face. He looked earnestly 
upwards, and then turning to his mother, he 
asked : 

" Mother, what is that beautiful country I see 
beyond the mountains — the high mountains ?" 

u I don't see them, Eddy, dear," said his 
mother. " There are no mountains in sight of 
our house." 

"Look there, dear mother," said the child, 
pointing upwards ; " yonder are the mountains. 
Don't you see them now ?" His mother shook 
her head. " They are near me now," said 
he ; " so large and high, and behind them the 
country looks so beautiful, and the people are 
so happy. There are no sick children there. 
Papa, can't you see behind the mountains? 
Tell me the name of that beautiful country." 

His parents looked at each other, and said : 
" The land you see is heaven, dear Eddy, 
where Jesus dwells." 



136 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

" Yes," said he, " it's heaven — it's heaven I 
Oh! let me go. But how shall I get across 
those dark mountains ? Father, won't you 
carry me ? They are beckoning me from the 
other side, and I must go." 

There was not a dry eye in that chamber. 
All there felt as if they were just on the bor- 
ders of heaven. It seemed as if the curtains 
were drawn aside, that they might look in 
upon its glories. 

"Mother — father, don't cry," said Eddy, 
" but -come with me across the mountains. Oh, 
come !" 

Then there was silence in that chamber for 
a while. No one was willing to speak. At last 
he turned to his mother ; his face was beaming 
with joy, and, stretching out his little arms for 
a last embrace, he said : — 

" Good-by, mother, I am going ; but don't be 
afraid ; the angel of Jesus is waiting to carry 
me over the mountains. Good-by." 

These were his last words. There was a 
" sure reward" for him in that beautiful world 
which he saw beyond the mountains. And if 



THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 137 

we love Jesus and sow righteousness, there will 
be a sure reward for us there too. There is a 
reward of pleasure in sowing righteousness, as 
Joe Benton found when he put that live coal 
on Fritz's head. There is a reward of profit 
in sowing righteousness, — profit in this world 
as the poor widow found when she gave her 
twenty pounds to the missionary society, — and 
profit in the world to come, as little Eddy found 
when the angel took him over the mountains to 
the beautiful world beyond. 

Now we have had three reasous why sowing 
righteousness is the best sowing. It is so because 
of the size of the field ; because of the number 
and Jcind of sowers / and because of the cer- 
tainty of the reward. 

My dear children, pray to Jesus to make you 
His children ; to teach you to love Him, and to 
help you all to be sowers of righteousness, and 
then there will be a sure reward for you. 

12* 



V. 



"The way of transgressors is hard." — Prov. xiii. 15. 



" The way of transgressors is hard." — Prov. xiii. 15. 

How many different ways there are in the 
world for people to walk in ! Some of these 
are rough ways, and others are smooth. Some 
are crooked ways, and others are straight. 
Some are broad, and others are narrow. Some 
are steep, and others are level. Some are 
pleasant, and others are unpleasant. Some are 
easy ways to walk in, while others are hard. 

Our text tells us about the hard way. Solo- 
mon says, " The way of transgressors is hard." 
What does the word transgressor mean ? It 
means, literally, one vjho walks over. 

Suppose your school should go out into the 

country, some fine summer day, to have a pic-nic 

in the woods. It is a beautiful, shady place to 

which you go, with a nice, smooth, velvet lawn 

spread out under the branches of the trees. 

But there is one part of the woods where the 

CUD 



142 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

ground is low and marshy. At a little distance 
from this spot there have been some stakes 
driven into the ground, with a cord stretched 
along from one to another. When you all get 
out there, before you scatter to ramble through 
the woods and amuse yourselves, your superin- 
tendent speaks a few words to the scholars. 
He tells you that he hopes you will have a nice 
time, and enjoy yourselves very much. But, 
there is one special thing he has to say. These 
are his words : " You see those stakes, and the 
line stretched across them. No scholar here 
must cross that line. Under no circumstances 
whatever must any of you go over that line. 
This is the law for the day. You all hear it. 
You all understand it. You all promise to 
mind it. Then you are dismissed to play." 

Everything goes on pleasantly for a while. 
But by and by several of the boys are playing 
down by the stakes. Presently one of them 
sees a tree with nice apples on it, a little dis- 
tance beyond the forbidden line. " Look at 
those ripe apples," says he ; " come on, boys, 
let's go and get some." 



THE HARD WAY. 143 

" No," says one of the other boys, " don't you 
see there's the line which the superintendent 
said we mustn't go over." 

" I should like to know what harm it's going 
to do, just to go over a few steps to get some 
nice apples. Besides, the superintendent won't 
know anything about it." And so, over he 
goes. 

Now what is that boy when he goes over that 
line? He is a transgressor. He walks over 
the line, which he was told not to walk over. 
So God's laws are the lines which he has set 
up to show us where we must not go ; when 
we break those laws we walk over G-od's lines. 
That makes us sinners, or trangressors ; for the 
apostle says, " Sin is the transgression of the 
law ;" that means, it is walking over the line 
that God has set up for us. And in our text, 
Solomon says, that " The way of transgressors 
(or of those who walk over these lines), is 
hard." 

There are three things about the transgres- 
sor's way which make it hard. The first of 
these is the guide he has to follow. 



144 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

When we walk in the way of sin or trans- 
gression, our guide is Satan. You know the 
Bible tells us of all those who do not love and 
serve God, that Satan " worketh or ruleth in 
their hearts" (Ephes. ii. 2), and that they are 
" led captive by him at his will' 7 (2 Tim. ii. 26). 
They are in his power. He is their guide or 
leader. So long as they are in the transgressor's 
way, they can't get away from him, but are 
obliged to follow him as their guide. And to 
have such a guide must make that way a hard 
way. Let me try to show you how. 

Suppose we were in Switzerland, and wanted 
to go to the top of Mount Blanc. That is a 
very dangerous mountain to go up. Nobody 
can get up without a guide. The way is 
very hard to find. In some places you have to 
walk over mountains of ice. At times the only 
path is just like a shelf of ice, not broader than 
your two hands, while at the side is a dreadful 
gulf, or chasm hundreds of feet deep. Only 
think of a wall of ice higher than the top of a 
church steeple, and about a foot wide ; and then 
think of walking along the top of that wall, 




GUIDE OVER MOUNT BLANC. 



The Safe Compass. 



p. 145. 



THE HARD WAY, 145 

witfi no railing on one side, and nothing to hold 
on to on the other. If you stumble or slip, 
down you plunge, and are dashed to pieces. 
Why, it makes the head grow dizzy, and the 
blood run cold just to think about it. This 
shows you why the travellers up that mountain 
need a guide. And it isn't any guide you 
would be willinsr to take. You want to be 
sure that your guide is intelligent, or that he 
knows the way well himself. You want to be 
sure that he is honest and faithful, so that he 
won't lead you into any unnecessary danger. 
And you want to be sure that he is strong and 
powerful, so that if you get faint on the way, 
and need assistance, he can help you. Some- 
times in going over those dangerous passes, the 
guide ties a rope around the body of the trav- 
eller, and then fastens it to his own body, so 
that if the traveller should slip, he can stop 
him from falling ; and many a one has been 
saved in this way. 

And suppose, now, that in the valley of 
Chamouni, at the foot of Mount Blanc, from 
which travellers start to go up the mountain, 
13 



146 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

there was a very wicked man acting as guide. 
He is so wicked that he undertakes to guide 
travellers up the mountain on purpose to de- 
stroy them. None who follow his guidance 
ever get safe down again. He either leads 
them to some slippery path, where they are 
sure to fall ; or when they reach the middle of 
one of those high, narrow, icy paths, along the 
edge of a dreadful precipice, he gives them a 
push, and down they go, to instant destruction. 
Now, if you had to travel along such a 
mountain-path, with such a guide, to lead you, 
I want to know if you would not think that 
that was a hard way to travel ? Certainly you 
would. Well, Satan is just such a guide. His 
only object in guiding people is to lead them to 
destruction. Our journey through life is like 
a pathway over a dangerous mountain. We 
must have a guide. There are only two guides 
to choose between : Jesus is one ; Satan is 
the other. If we take Jesus for our guide, He 
will lead us in Wisdom's ways ; and " her ways 
are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are 
peace." If we take Satan for our guide he will 



THE HARD WAY. 147 

lead us " in the way of transgressors ;" and we 
shall find that that is a hard way. 

See, there is Judas Iscariot. He was one of 
the twelve apostles chosen by our Saviour, to 
be with him while he was on earth. But, 
though he was with Jesus, he did not take him 
for his guide. He allowed Satan to guide him. 
Judas was made treasurer of the company or 
Society of the Apostles. He kept the bag in 
which their money was put. Satan tempted 
him to steal some of that money. This was 
leading him into a slippery path. He didn't 
get as much money as he wanted. Then Satan 
put into his mind the horrible thought of be- 
traying his Master, and selling him to His 
enemies for thirty pieces of silver, or about 
fifteen dollars, the price, in those days, of a 
common slave. Thus Satan led Judas to one 
of those narrow paths along the edge of an 
awful precipice. As soon as he had betrayed 
his Master, he tempted him to go and hang 
himself. When he did this, Satan pushed him 
off from that dangerous path, and plunged him 
into everlasting destruction. And this is what 



148 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

he tries to do to all transgressors who follow 
his guidance. " The way of transgressors is 
hard." 

It is hard, in the first place, because of the 
guide which those who walk in it must follow. 

But in the second place " The vmy of trans- 
gressors is hard! 1 because of the recollections, 
which those have of it ivho icalk therein. 

Some years ago, there was a good minister 
in England, whose name was Dr. Doddridge. 
On one occasion he had a very singular dream. 
He thought, in his dream, that he was taken 
sick and died. His spirit left the body and 
soared away towards heaven, under the guid- 
ance of an angel. After a long flight he arrived 
at the gate of the heavenly city. He entered. 
Then the angel introduced him into a very 
beautiful palace, where he was to remain. 
Here the angel left him, telling him he would 
find enough to interest him in those rooms till 
the Lord of the city came to him. Then he 
began to look round. The walls of the room 
were covered all over with paintings, which 
seemed to be wrought curiously into the mate- 



THE HAED WAY. 149 

rials of which the walls were made. On ex- 
amining them closely, he was greatly surprised 
to find that these paintings formed a long 
series of pictures representing the history of his 
own life on earth. All that he had done, — all 
that he had said — or thought, or felt, was here 
pictured out on the walls of the palace in which 
he was to live forever. His sins which had 
been forgiven for Jesus' sake, were not intro- 
duced. But every deed of kindness or charity ; 
all that he had done to show his love for Jesus, 
or his desire to please Him, was pointed out 
there. 

Now, suppose we knew that God was en- 
gaged in taking photograph pictures of all our 
thoughts and feelings, our words and actions, 
during our whole lives. And suppose we 
knew that these pictures were to be fastened 
to the walls of the house in which our souls 
are to live forever, so that they should be 
always before us, and that everybody might 
see them, then how very careful we should be 
to try and always have right thoughts and 
feelings, and always to speak and act in such a 



150 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

way that we should not feel ashamed to look, 
ourselves, or to have any one else look at the 
pictures of what we had been doing, or saying, 
or thinking, or feeling. If we are trying to 
love and serve God, then all the pictures of our 
life, painted on the walls of our heavenly home, 
will be such as we shall love to look upon. 
This is one of the things which makes Wis- 
dom's way a pleasant way. All the recollec- 
tions we shall have of it hereafter will be 
pleasant recollections. 

But it is very different with " the way of the 
transgressor." All the recollections of those 
who walk in this way will be painful. This is 
one of the things that makes this way hard. I 
might tell you many stories to illustrate this 
part of our sermon, but I will only give you 
one. This, however, I hope you will never 
forget. 

Henry Stanley was the son of pious parents. 
He was the oldest of a family of four boys, and 
was of a bold and daring disposition. One 
summer's morning, when he was twelve years 
old, his father came to him and said : " Henry, 



THE HARD WAY. 151 

my boy, this is your birthday, and I am going 
to give you and your brothers holiday this 
afternoon ; you may go into the fields, and 
take one or two of your companions with you.' 7 
The afternoon came, bright and beautiful. 
Before starting, Mr. Stanley said : " Henry, 
you are older than any of your brothers or 
friends ; you must, therefore, set them a good 
example. Don't go through Farmer Clarke's 
field, for there is a dangerous bull there. Go 
round by the lane. Now mind what I say." 
Mr. Stanley then told Henry to take great care 
of Frank, his youngest brother. Frank was a 
beautiful child, about six years of age, with 
bright dark eyes and rosy cheeks, the pride and 
pet of the family. At the close of the day the 
boys were to have tea with an old servant of 
their mother's called Dame Burton, who lived 
in a neat, pretty cottage at the foot of the lane. 
They set off in high glee, taking with them their 
dog u Roughie." Frank was very fond of 
Roughie, who was his constant companion. 
On this occasion, Frank had tied a ribbon 
round his favorite's neck, so that they walked 



152 THE SAFE COMPASS, 

together the whole way. They expected to 
have a happy time, and so they would have 
had if Henry had only kept out of " the way 
of transgressors." 

When they had gone some distance they 
came to Farmer Clarke's field and the lane, 
which were close together. Here they stopped. 
" I wish we could only go through the field," 
said Henry, in a fretful, grumbling tone, " it's 
so much nearer. I'm sure the bull wouldn't 
hurt us. I don't think father knew we had 
Roughie with us, or I'm sure he wouldn't have 
forbidden us to go." 

" Oh, do come along the lane," said his 
brother Alfred, " it's not much further ; and if 
we go through the field we shall be disobeying 
father." 

" Well," said Henry, " let me stop and look 
through the gate • I should like at least to see 
this bull." 

Frank came to the gate with Roughie, and 
sat singing on the stile, tying flowers, which he 
had gathered by the way, on Roughie's neck. 
Presently he saw some bright ones growing on 



THE HARD WAY. 153 

the bank, and knowing nothing about the bull, 
he slipped off the stile, ran into the field, and 
began to pick the flowers. Meanwhile, Henry 
looked through the gate, but saw nothing of 
the bull. " It isn't here," said he ; but he had 
hardly spoken the words before he heard a low 
bellowing. Not in the least frightened, Henry 
climbed up the gate. At length he saw the 
bull approaching slowly, though he did not ap- 
pear to see him. He then got down, not notic- 
ing Frank ; he did not even look for him, as 
he thought he was with his brothers, who were 
walking up the lane. He next opened the 
gate, which was fastened very securely, saying, 
" Now for some fun.' 7 Thoughtless, wicked 
boy ! Thus he went into the " transgressor's 
way." We shall see directly how hard he 
found it. 

He picked up some stones, and entering the 
field, he began to throw them at the bull. Di- 
rectly the bull began pawing the ground, and 
bellowing with rage. Now Henry was fright- 
ened, and ran out of the field, but forgetting to 
fasten the gate after him. 



154 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

His brothers were gone some distance, and 
were seated on the bank at the road-side, wait- 
ing for him. Henry came up panting for 
breath, and cried : " You cowards ! You were 
afraid of the bull ! Why—' 7 

Here Alfred interrupted him, saying in a 
quick, hurried tone, " Where's Frankie ? Oh ! 
Henry, why didn't you bring him with you ?" 

Henry stopped, and turned pale. " He must 
have come — " But here he was interrupted 
again by seeing the bull coming up the lane at 
full speed towards them. Henry shrieked with 
terror, and tried to follow his brothers, who 
were running with all their might. But pres- 
ently the bull overtook him, tossed him high up 
in the air, and left him lying senseless in the 
road. In this state he was picked up and car- 
ried home. 

And now you are all wondering what has 
become of dear little Frank. You remember 
he had slipped into the field to gather flowers. 
Roughie followed him. Presently the dog be- 
gan to bark loudly, and ran away from Frank. 
This made Frank turn round, when lie saw the 



THE HAED WAY. 155 

bull renting up to him. The poor child 
screamed, and called for his mother • but she 
could neither hear nor help him. The bull 
came on, and running at Frank, tossed him 
over the hedge on to a hayrick which was in 
the next field. 

Afterwards, some men who were going by, 
saw Roughie, who had climbed up on to the 
hayrick, where his little master lay bleeding, 
and was barking furiously. They lifted the 
dear boy down, and carried him to Dame Bur- 
ton's cottage. They thought that he had only 
fainted, and tried everything to bring him to, 
but in vain. Then he was carried home and 
laid gently on the sofa. His poor mother — 
ah ! think of her feelings ! — was leaning over 
his pale, sweet face, when suddenly, so suddenly 
that she started back, his large dark eyes 
opened, and his gentle voice said, " Dear, dear 
mother ; kiss me, dear mother ;" and then, 
before she could stoop down to kiss him, his 
eyes were closed, his lips were still, and a 
bright angel had received the spirit of dear 
little Frankie to carry it up to heaven. 



156 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

It was a long time before Henry became 
conscious. When he first came to his senses, 
he found himself in a darkened room, with the 
curtains drawn closely round his bed. He 
raised himself on one side, and listened ; he 
heard some one sighing deeply. " Mother," he 
murmured softly. The curtains were opened. 
" Mother, where is Frankie ? — what has hap- 
pened ?" 

" You have been ill, my child," said his 
mother, quietly ; and smoothing his pillow, she 
laid his head down on it. Her face was calm 
and sorrowful, but there was no reproach in it. 
Henry seemed confused and bewildered. At 
length he said : " Mother, have I been dream- 
ing ? What a fright I had ! How strange it 
seems ! But, mother, no ! I've not been 
dreaming. I remember it all now. Oh ! 
mother, tell me, — do tell me where Frankie 
is!" 

" In heaven, my child ; dear little Frankie is 
a beautiful angel now." 

Ah ! think how Henry must have felt then ! 
He looked like the very picture of heart-break 



THE HARD WAY. 157 

ing sorrow. Seeing his great distress, his 
mother said : 

" Frankie is happy now ; we cannot wish 
him back again." 

Oh, mother, / have hilled him. Can you ever 
forgive me ? I never can be happy any more. 
My brother ! oh ! my brother !" 

His mother let him cry in this way for 
awhile, and then pitying the poor fellow's 
great distress, she said : ; ' Your father and I 
have forgiven you, my child, but now you must 
pray for the forgiveness of your heavenly 
Father." 

" Mother, won't you pray for me ?" asked 
Henry. 

His mother kneeled down at his bedside, and 
earnestly prayed that God would forgive his 
great sin, and give him grace to keep out of the 
transgressor's ways for the future. This gave 
him a little relief ; but, ah ! no words can ex- 
press the anguish of poor Henry's heart when 
he thought that his darling pet, his dear little 
Frankie. was in his tiny grave, brought there 
through his disobedience ; and that he should 
~ 11 



158 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

never hear his merry laugh again when playing 
with old Roughie. Poor Henry! he had 
learned a bitter lesson indeed. 

Slowly he recovered his health again, but he 
never, never forgot the scenes of that day. 
His whole life was embittered by the sad 
recollections of his twelfth birth-day. And 
though lie found peace at last, through the 
blood of Jesus, and felt that God, for Christ's 
sake, had forgiven his sin, yet the recollection 
of it hung over him like a gloomy shadow. 
And suppose that we could have seen him 
months, or even years, after that melancholy 
event had taken place. He is going by Far- 
mer Clarke's field. He stops at the gate. The 
whole scene comes fresh before him again. He 
bows down his head and weeps bitter tears. 
We go up to him and ask him to tell us wjiat 
it is which makes " the way of the transgressor 
hard." He looks up, with his eyes full of tears, 
as he wrings his hands, and says : " Oh, it's the 
recollections ! — -the dreadful recollections /" 

The first thing that makes it hard is the 
guide. The second thing is the recollections. 



•THE HAED WAY. 159 

The third thing I tvould speak of as mak- 
ing " the way of transgressors hard" is the 

WAGES. 

Sometimes when a person is working for 
another, he is not paid all at once, but gets so 
much a week or month, and the rest when the 
work is finished. And this is the way in which 
God pays people for what they do in this life. 
So transgressors get part of their wages now, 
but the full payment will not be received till 
they get to the end of their hard way, — that 
is, till they come to die. Now the wages which 
transgressors receive are made up of two things 
— viz., shame and suffering. 

Shame is a part of these wages. The Bible 
tells us that " shame shall be the promotion of 
fools." " Fools" here means the same as " trans- 
gressors." And " promotion" here means re- 
ward or wages. Shame is sure to be the 
wages of transgressors. This means that sin 
will always be followed by disgrace or shame. 

Take some examples. The first transgressor 
that ever lived was Satan. He transgressed 
in heaven. He became proud. He was not 



160 • THE SAFE COMPASS. 

willing to do and be what God wanted him to 
be and do. For this he was driven out of heaven. 
He was cast down to hell. And, now, instead 
of loving and serving God, which is the highest 
honor — yes, and the greatest happiness, too, — he 
spends his whole time in doing what he knows 
God does not like, — that is, in tempting men to 
commit all kinds of wickedness. Instead of 
being pure and holy, so that every one would 
love and reverence him, he is horribly vile and 
sinful. There is not a single person in all the 
universe that loves him. He is known as " the 
old serpent," " a deceiver," " a liar," " a mur- 
derer," " the evil oner Oh, what shame Satan 
has got from his transgression ! 

The next transgressors that we read of were 
Adam and Eve. They transgressed in the 
Garden of Eden. They ate of the tree of 
which God had forbidden them to eat. Thon 
they felt that they were sinners. They knew 
that they were naked, and they were ashamed. 
When God came to speak to them they were 
afraid and ran away, and tried to hide them- 
selves among the trees of the garden. The 



THE HARD WAY. 161 

mark of sin was on their souls. This made 
them feel ashamed to come before God. 

The next transgressor was Cain. He trans- 
gressed by killing his brother. For this God 
put a mark upon him. Then he went forth a 
wanderer and a vagabond on the face of the 
earth. We do not know what the mark was 
which God put upon Cain : but it was some- 
thing by which he might be known as a mur- 
derer, and yet which would keep others from 
murdering him. Suppose that God should 
cause a great blood-red spot, which could not 
be washed off, or hidden from view, to come out 
on the forehead of every one guilty of murder, 
what a dreadful disgrace it would be to have 
such a mark ! If the mark on Cain was some- 
thing of this kind, then he must have been 
afraid to lift up his head in the presence of 
his fellow-creatures. No doubt he felt that 
shame, burning shame, was part of the wages 
of transgression. This helps to make this way 
hard. 

And it is always so with those who walk 
in the way of transgressors. They may get 
14* 



162 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

money, and find pleasure, while walking in this 
way, but they are sure to cover themselves with 
disgrace. Let a person be known as a liar, a 
thief, a drunkard, and every honest, good man 
or woman will try to keep out of his way. We 
feel that it is a shame even to be known as the 
companions of such people. 

There is the apostle Paul. How everybody 
honors his name ! What glory shines around 
it ! Why is this ? Because he kept out of the 
way of transgressors. He was faithful to his 
master. But there is Judas Iscariot. He was 
an apostle too. But what different feelings 
are called up when his name is mentioned. It 
is black with disgrace and shame. Why is 
this ? Because he went in the way of trans- 
gressors. He betrayed his master. There is 
George Washington. Glorious name ! What 
a halo of brightness and beauty shines round 
it ! You feel your heart swell within you when 
you hear it. You are ready almost to take off 
your hat and make a low bow at the mere 
mention of it. All the world honors that name. 
They will do it while the world stands. Why ? 



THE HARD WAY. 163 

Because lie was not a transgressor ? He was 
a good man, and faithful to his country. But 
there is the name of Benedict Arnold. What 
feelings of unpleasantness and disgust are 
excited by this name. If you saw it on the 
ground you would be almost ready to spit on 
it, and trample it in the mire and dirt. It is 
a name covered all over with the foulest shame 
and dishonor. And why ? Because he was a 
transgressor, a traitor against his country. He 
tried to sell his country for gold. He walked 
in the hard way, and he received part of his 
wages in shame. 

Martin Luther used to say that if you wrestle 
with a sweep, whether you throw him down or 
he throws you, you are sure to be grimed and 
blackened with soot. Now, sin or transgression 
is a sooty, blackening thing. Wherever it 
touches you it leaves a mark ; and these marks 
are shameful. 

Did you ever hear the story of Amos and 
the nails ? There was a bad boy once, whose 
name was Amos. His father was a very good 
man, and was grieved and troubled at the 



164 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

wickedness of Ms son. He had tried in vain 
to convince him of his sin, and induce him to do 
better. One day his father said to him, 
" Amos, here is a hammer and a keg of nails. 
I wish you every time you do a wrong thing to 
drive one of these nails into this post. 77 

" Well, Father, I will, 77 said Amos. 

After a while Amos came to his father and 
said, " I have used all the nails ; the keg is 
empty. Come and see. 77 

His father went to the spot, and found the 
post black with nails. " Amos, 77 said he, " have 
you done something wrong for each of these 
nails ?" 

" Yes, sir, 77 said the boy. 

" Oh, Amos, 77 said his father sorrowfully, 
" how sad this is to think of ! Why will you 
not turn about and try to be a good boy ? 77 

Amos stood thoughtfully for a few moments, 
and then said : " Father, I'll try. I know I 
have been very bad. Now I mean to pray 
God to help me to do better. 77 

" Very well, 77 said his father ; " now take 
the hammer, and every time you do a good act, 




THE MARKS OF THE NAILS 
The Safe Compass. P- 165. 



THE HARD WAT. 165 

or resist a wrong one, draw out a nail, and put 
it in the keg again." 

After some time the boy came to his father, 
and said : " Come, father, and see the nails in 
the keg again. I have pulled out a nail for 
every good act, and now the keg is full again."' 

" I am glad to see it, my son," said his father, 
" but see, the marks of the nails remain" 

So it is with transgression. It always leaves 
its marks. These marks it is a shame to bear. 
This shame is part of the wages which those 
must receive who walk in this hard way. 

Another part of these wages is suffering. If 
you put your finger in the fire will it burn ? 
Yes. Will the burning hurt you ? Yes. God 
has made our bodies so that burning causes 
great suffering, in order to make us keep from 
going too near the fire. And he has made suf- 
fering part of the wages of transgression, in 
order to keep us from sin. If we should go out 
to the almshouse, and find out the history of 
those who are insane, or sick and suffering in 
other ways, how many sad illustrations we 
should find of the truth of our text. ,; The wav 



166 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

of transgressors is hard." But I want to give you 
a very striking illustration of it, that occurred 
once, among some boys, in a school in England. 
Bob Winslow was the worst boy in the vil- 
lage. His father never checked him, but let 
him have his own way, till he had grown to be 
the terror of the neighborhood. He particu- 
larly loved to make sport of old, lame, crippled 
persons. There was one poor woman, bent 
down by age and infirmities, that Bob used 
especially to make game of. She came every 
day, leaning on her crutch, to draw water from 
the well near her house, and just within the 
play-ground of the school-house. Bob would 
sometimes follow close behind her, pretending 
to be lame, and hobbling along on his umbrella 
for a crutch, and mimicking her motions. 
" Only look at her,' 7 he would say, " isn't she 
like the letter S, with an extra crook in it ?" 
One day, when he was doing this, the old 
woman turned round, and looking at him re- 
proachfully, said, " Glo home, child, and read 
the story of Elisha and the two bears out of 
the wood." 



-THE HARD WAY. 167 

" Shame on you, Bob !" said Charles Mans- 
field, one of the best boys in the school ; 
11 Shame, I say, to laugh at the poor woman's 
misfortunes ! I've heard my grandmother say 
that she became a cripple by lifting her poor, 
afflicted son, and tending him night arid day." 

" I don't care what made her so," said Bob, 
" I wouldn't stay in the world if I was such an 
ugly-looking thing as that. Do look !" 

" Shame ! shame on you !" said Charles, and 
" Shame ! shame !" echoed from each of the 
boys present. " You may get your own oack 
hroJcen one of these days, Bob, — who knows ?" 

Charles Mansfield sprung to the old woman, 
and said " Let me help you, grandmother." 
Then he kindly took her pail, filled it at the 
well, and carried it home for her, and the boys 
made an arrangement for one of them to come, 
every day, and fetch her a pail of water. 
" God bless you ! God bless you all ! dear 
boys," said the old woman, as she wiped away 
her tears, and entered her poor lonely home. 

Bob Winslow's conduct was reported to the 
master. He was very much grieved, and sen- 



168 THE SAFE COMPASS, 

tenced him to stay in school and study, instead 
of going out to play at recess, for a week. 
This was pretty hard punishment, for Bob had 
very little love for study, but was prodigiously 
fond of play. Yet this was a slight punish- 
ment compared with what he was so soon to 
receive. 

On the second day of his confinement, he sat 
near the open window, watching the boys at 
their sports in the playground. Suddenly, 
while the master was occupied in another part 
of the room, he rose and jumped from the win- 
dow into the midst of the boys, with a shout at 
what he had done. " Now let him punish me 
again, if he can I" cried he. As he said this, 
he ran backwards, throwing up his arms in 
defiance, and shouting, when — suddenly his 
voice ceased ; there was a heavy plunge, and a 
loud groan burst on the ears of his startled 
companions. 

It so happened that the well, of which we 
have spoken, was being repaired. The work- 
men were at a distance, collecting their materi- 
als, and had carelessly left the opening of the 



• THE HAKD WAY. 169 

well uncovered. As Bob was going back- 
wards, at the very moment of his triumph, he 
stepped into the mouth of the well, and down 
he went. There was a cry of horror from the 
boys. They all rushed to the spot. Charles 
Mansfield, the bravest of them all, was the first 
to seize the well-rope. He jumped into the 
bucket, and got the boys to lower him down. 
The well was deep ; but, fortunately, there was 
not much water in it, and Bob lay motionless 
at the bottom. Charles lifted him carefully, 
and with one arm round his apparently lifeless 
body, the other on the rope, he gave the signal, 
and was slowly raised to the top. The pale 
face of the wicked boy filled his campanions 
with horror. Without saying a word, they 
carried him to the house of the poor woman, 
whom he had treated so cruelly. She had seen 
the accident from her window, and was hob- 
bling along, on her crutch, to meet them. Poor 
Bob was taken into her humble home, and laid 
upon her bed. The kind-hearted old woman, 
forgetful of his ill-treatment of her, got out her 
bandages, her camphor bottle, and other things ; 
15 



170 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

and, while one of the boys ran for the doctor, 
and another for their teacher, she sat down by 
his side and bathed his hands and his forehead, 
as tenderly as though he had been her own son. 
After the doctor had dressed his wounds, he 
was carried on a litter to his own home, sur- 
rounded by his sorrowing companions, but still 
insensible. 

A few hours later in the day a group of boys 
met on the play-ground. They talked to one 
another in a low voice. They looked pale and 
sad. Presently, Charles Mansfield came up. 

" Well, boys, how is poor Bob, now ? Have 
any of you heard ?" 

" Oh, Charlie !" cried several, at once, as 
they gathered round him. " Oh ! don't you 
know? haven't you heard? Why, he has 
opened his eyes, and is able to speak ; but his 
back is broken, and he will be a cripple and a 
hunchback, for life /" 

Charles clasped his hands, without uttering 
a word, and burst into tears. He couldn't 
speak for a while. At last, with the tears still 
streaming down his pale cheeks, but with a 



THE HARD WAY. 171 

manly voice, he said, " Boys, I hope we shall 
never forget the lesson we have learned to-day. 
The Bible says, ' The way of the transgressor 
is hard ;' and poor Bob's experience proves 
how true that is !" 

I cannot tell you the dreadful suffering, both 
of mind and body, that Bob passed through, 
during the months that he lay upon that 
sick bed. He found out that it is the ivag'es 
of the transgressor which makes his way so 
hard. Great suffering indeed he passed through 
as part of the wages he had to receive. 

I am glad to be able to tell you that Bob 
became a Christian, on that bed of suffering. 
His sin was forgiven. Like Amos, he drew the 
nails out of the post ; but ah ! in his broken back 
the marks of the nails remained. " The way 
of transgressors is hard." The guide, the 
recollections, and the wages, make it hard. The 
wages are made up of shame and suffering. 

My dear children, we have all been in this 
way. Jesus came to show us how to get out of 
it. His blood takes away transgression. 

If Jesus is our friend, we have nothing to 



172 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

fear. Martin Luther says, that Satan came to 
him, one day, and said, "Luther, you are a 
great sinner, you will be lost." " Stop, stop," 
said Luther, " not so fast, one thing at a time, 
if you please. You say I am a great sinner. 
That is true, though you ought to be the last 
to say anything to any one about sin. I am a 
great sinner. Yes, but Jesus is a great Sa- 
viour. His blood cleanses from all sin ; and, 
therefore, though I am a great sinner I shall go 
to heaven. I shall not be lost." Then Satan 
went off and had nothing more to say. This is 
true. Jesus can pardon all our sins. If our 
sins are forgiven, for His sake, we never can 
be lost. Oh, turn to Jesus, then. Trust in 
Him. He will take you out of the hard way, 
and put you in that way which is all pleasant- 
ness and peace. As long as you live, remem- 
ber this text : " The way of transgressors is 
hard !" 



VI. 



%\t BmU$-5tbjia\ §mM. 



"I am come into my garden." — Canticles t. 1. 



15* 



VI. 



" I am come into my garden." — Canticles v. 1. 

It is Jesus who is speaking here. He says 
He is come into what ? His Garden. Yes. 
" I am come into My Garden." By the garden, 
here, Jesus means His Church. He compares 
His Church unto a garden. But the Sunday- 
school is one of the most important parts of the 
Church of Christ. It is the nursery in which 
the young plants and trees are reared, which 
are, afterv\ r ards, to be set out on earth and in 
Paradise above. We may consider the garden 
here, then, as referring to the Sunday-school. 
And then Jesus speaks about coining into this 
garden. Now, when we read, or hear about 
this, I suppose we all feel inclined to ask two 
questions. These questions will form the di- 
visions of our sermon. The questions are 
these : Why is the Sunday-school like a garden? 

and what does Jesus come into it for? 

(H5) 






176 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

Why is the Sunday-school like a garden? 
It is so because of what is done for it. It 
is so because of what grows in it. 

The Sunday-school is like a garden because of 
what is done for it. Now just see what we do for 
a garden when we wish to make one, and you 
will see that Jesus does the very same things 
for the Sunday-school. 

The first thing done for a garden is to fence it. 
If you want to make a garden, out of a part of a 
field or common, you begin by building a fence all 
round it. This is to keep the cattle out, and to 
protect it from being trodden down, by those 
who pass by. And so Jesus has fences all 
round the Sunday-school. These fences are 
made out of the commandments He has given 
us in the Bible. When we find a text in the 
Bible which tells us not to do anything, the 
words of that text are like a fence, which God 
has set up to keep us from doing evil. 

There was a little boy, once, who had been 
well taught in Sabbath-school. His mother 
was poor but pious. Her boy had learned to 
obey her. He had to go to sea as a cabin-boy. 






THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 177 

His mother's last words to him were — "-Johnny, 
never drink a drop of rum? 

All the sailors used to drink liquor several 
times a day. They tried to persuade Johnny 
to drink, but he never would. One time, dur- 
ing a storm, which lasted several days, they 
told him he would catch cold and die if he 
didn't take some liquor ; but he wouldn't mind. 
At last, one of the sailors, who had never 
spoken to him on the subject, said he was sure 
he could make him take a drink. He went to 
try. He said everything he could think of to 
persuade him to drink. The little fellow heard 
all he had to say. Then he quoted his mother's 
words — "Johnny, never drink a drop of rum" 
He repeated the fifth commandment, and a 
great many passages of Scripture about obe- 
dience to parents. The sailor hadn't heard so 
much of the Bible for a long time. He found 
he could not succeed, and gave it up. When 
he went back to his place, the other sailors asked 
him how he had made out. " Oh," says he, 
" you can't do anything with him. Why, he's 
chuck full of the Bible? 



178 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

You see, the Bible was a fence to keep 
Johnny from drinking. In the same way it 
has fences to keep us from all sinful things. 

When we have fenced our garden, the next thing 
to do is to weed it. ' Weeds always grow 
thicker and faster than the plants and flowers 
in a garden. You can't do anything till the 
weeds are pulled up. But you may ask what 
are the weeds that grow in God's garden. This 
garden, you remember, is made up of His chil- 
dren in the Sunday-school, and the weeds in it 
are the wrong feelings sometimes found in our 
hearts. Pride is one of these weeds. It is a 
tall, strong weed, with a glaring, disagreeable 
flower. It springs up and grows everywhere. 
It can grow where nothing else can ; and it is 
very hard indeed to root out. Anger is another 
of their weeds ; impatience is another ; selfish- 
ness is another ; idleness is another ; disobedi- 
ence is another; and so I might go on making 
out a long list. There is hardly any end to 
the weeds that grow in this garden, if they are 
only let alone. But all these must be pulled up. 
When we become the friends and followers of 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 179 

Jesus, he expects us to put away from us all 
these bad feelings and tempers. And when we 
do this we are pulling up weeds from his garden. 

Now we've got our garden fenced and weeded. 
The next thing to be done for it is to improve 
the soil. Some soil is so very poor that noth- 
ing will grow in it. When this is the case, the 
gardener has many ways of fixing it. I will 
only speak of one. He will have the poor soil 
taken away, and some good, rich soil put in its 
place. You know, if you go into the woods, 
where the leaves have been falling and mould- 
ering away, for a great many years, you have 
only to scrape away the dry leaves from the 
top, and underneath you find plenty of nice, 
soft, black, rich soil, which is the very thing to 
make first-rate garden-beds out of. Oh, how 
the plants and flowers will grow in this new 
soil ! The gardener improves the soil by chang- 
ing it and making it new. 

And this is just what Jesus does to his peo- 
ple. He improves the soil of their hearts by 
changing it and making it new. He says in 
the Bible — " A new heart also will I give them, 









180 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

and a new spirit will I put within them ; and I 
will take away the heart of stone from them, 
and will give them a heart of flesh." This is 
like taking away the bad soil, in which nothing 
will grow, from a bed •in the garden, and put- 
ting good, rich soil in its place. When Jesus 
makes our hearts new He is improving the soil 
of His garden. Everything that Jesus loves 
will grow in the soil of the new heart. 

Well, here is the garden fenced, and weeded, 
and with its soil improved. What next is to be 
done ? Now, we are ready to sow the seed, and 
put in the plants we want to have growing 
there. Here, we want to have a bed of pinks 
and Sweet Williams, and so we put those seeds 
in. There, we want a bed of marigolds and 
wall-flowers, and we sow the seeds for them. 
Over there, we want to have some verbenas, 
and down this walk we want to have a large 
bed of mignonette, so as to perfume all the air. 
On the other side of the walk we want a tulip 
bed, so we set out the roots of this beautiful 
plant. Under our window we plant a sweet- 
brier and a honey-suckle, and in the bed oppo- 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GAKDEN. 181 

site the window, we set out a great variety of 
rose bushes. We can't expect to have a gar- 
den unless we put in the seeds and plants that 
we wish to have growing there. 

But does Jesus do anything like this in His 
garden ? Certainly He does. You know when 
Jesus was on earth, among the many beautiful 
parables which he spoke to the people, was one 
about the sower. His disciples didn't under- 
stand it, and came and asked Him to explain it 
to them. In doing this, he told them that He 
Himself was the sower. He told them, also, 
that " the seed was the word of God." The 
truths of the Bible are this seed. It is called 
" good seed." When we read the Bible, and 
learn the truths it teaches, we are sowing this 
" good seed" in our hearts, where it will grow 
like the different kinds of seed that wc put in 
our gardens. 

And then there is one other thing that must 
be done for our garden. It is fenced, and weeded, 
the soil is improved, and the seeds and plants 
are put into it. Now it must be watered and 
eared for. Suppose no rain comes down and no 
16 



182 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

dew distils upon it, will the seed sown there 
ever spring up and grow ? Never. Or sup- 
pose the rain should fall, but no warm sun 
should shine upon it, will anything grow there? 
No. Sometimes the gardener lays pipes down 
m his garden, to carry water to different parts 
of it, so that when there comes a dry spell in 
summer he can easily water these plants and 
keep them from withering. And then, when 
the seeds spring up, and the plants begin to 
grow, how carefully the gardner watches them ! 
How he loosens the soil, and picks out the 
stones, and tries to keep off everything that 
would hinder the plants from growing ! 

And just in this way, Jesus waters and cares 
for His garden. His grace is the rain and dew 
that soften the soil of our hearts. His Holy 
Spirit is like the sun that shines on and warms 
them. Jesus has pipes in his garden to carry 
the water of his grace wherever it is needed. 
The Bible that we read, and have explained to 
us, is one of these pipes. The sermons that are 
preached to us, the prayers that we offer, and 
the sacraments, ordained in the Church, are all 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 183 

precious, golden pipes, by means of which Jesus 
waters his garden. And then our blessed 
Saviour watches carefully over His garden, 
all the time, to keep anything from hurting the 
plants, or from hindering their growth. 

Thus, we see that the Sunday-school may be 
called a garden hecause of what is done for it. 
It is fenced; it is weeded; the soil is improved; 
seeds and plants are put into it ; and it is 
watered and cared for. 

But, then, there is another reason why the 
Sunday-school may be compared to a garden, 
viz., hecause of what grows in it. 

In a garden, we expect to find beautiful 
flowers, and delicious fruit. Roses and lilies, 
and honeysuckles, and pinks, and daisies, and 
flowers, of all kinds, are growing there. And 
fruits, as well as flowers, are found in our gar- 
dens. Apricots, and peaches, and pears, and 
grapes, and currants, and strawberries, and 
pleasant fruits, of, oh, how many kinds, grow 
and ripen there ! 

And so in the Sunday-school, which is the 
Garden of Christ, many sweet flowers and 



184 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

fruits are found growing. Every good feeling, 
that we cherish in our hearts, is a spiritual 
flower, and every good deed, that we perform 
in our lives, is a spiritual fruit, which Jesus 
loves to see, blooming and ripening in His gar- 
den. Let us look at some of these. 

Here is a little girl who feels that she is a sin- 
ner. When she thinks of her sins, she feels very 
sorry. The thought of them makes her bosom 
swell. It brings the tears into her eyes. They 
flow down her cheeks. She bows her head and 
prays thus : " Lord Jesus Christ, be merciful to 
me, a sinner. Create in me a clean heart, and 
renew a right spirit within me." This is re- 
pentance. Repentance is a spiritual flower. 
Jesus loves to see it. We may compare it to a 
snow-drop. This is a beautiful white flower, 
which springs up before the snow is quite gone. 
It hangs down its delicate little head, just as if 
it had been doing something wrong, and was 
sorry for it. Every boy and girl who repents, 
L e., who is truly sorry for sin, is a spiritual 
snow-drop in the garden of Jesus. 

But, see, here is a crocus. This is a sweet 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 185 

flower, of a bright yellow color. Like the 
snow-drop, it is one of the early spring flowers, 
It comes out while the ground is hard, and the 
air is cold, and the dry leaves scattered around 
make the garden look very dreary. And then 
its beautiful face looks so bright and sunshiny, 
that we always think of this flower as repre- 
senting cheerfulness. 

" Poor Annie/' said a Sunday-school teacher 
one day, to a little girl in her class, who had 
no father, and whose mother was very poor and 
sick. " Poor Annie !" " Please, teacher, don't 
call me poor," said the little girl ; " why I've 
got a dear mother who loves me, and ticenty- 
five-cents /" She loved Jesus, and was happy 
and cheerful. She was a smiling crocus in the 
garden of Jesus. 

The father of a family had died very sud- 
denly. Shortly after, the minister called to 
-sympathize with the widow and her fatherless 
children, in their sorrow. As he entered the 
house, he met a bright-eyed little fellow, about 
four years old. " Well, Willie, you have no 
father now," said the minister. "No," said 
16* 



186 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

Willie j " I haven't any father/' and his large 
blue eyes filled with tears, "but I've got a 
mother, though, and I've got a James, and a 
William, and a Lizaie, and a Hannah," naming 
over all the members of the family that were left. 
Happy, cheerful spirit ! there was another cro- 
cus in the garden of Jesus. 

But, see, here is a honeysuckle. It can't 
stand by itself. It must have something to 
cling to. But give it a cord, or pole, or branch 
to grow on, and it will twine itself around it, 
and cling fast to it, and grow finely, and fill all 
the air with its fragrance. Faith, or trust in 
God, is like the honeysuckle. It twines itself 
around God's promise, and clings to that, and 
then opens its beautiful fragrant flowers. 

" What do you do without a mother to tell 
all your troubles to ?" asked a little girl, who 
had a mother, of one who had lost hers. 
"Mother told me who to go to, before she 
died," said the orphan ; "I go to the Lord 
Jesus ; He was mother's friend, and He's 












il But Jesus is far off in the sky, and has a 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL .GARDEN. 187 

great many things to attend to ; it's not likely 
He'll stop to mind you," said the other. 

K I don't know anything about that," replied 
the orphan ; " all I know is, He says he ivill, 
and that's enough for me." See how the trust 
of this dear child twined itself round God's 
promise, and grew there. Trust, or faith, is 
the honeysuckle in G-od's garden. 

And then contentment is the heart 1 s-ease here ; 
and humility is the violet; and love is the 
myrtle — and modesty is the lily — and inno- 
cence is the daisy ; and so we might go on all 
through the garden. 

But there axe fruits, in God's garden, as well 
flowers. I said, you know, that good feelings 
in our hearts, are the flowers that grow here. 
The fruits that ripen in God's garden are good 
actions in our lives. Self -denied is one of these 
fruits. Charity, or kindness to the poor and 
suffering, is another. Forgiveness to those who 
injure us is another. Patience is another, 'per- 
severance is another, prayer for God's blessing 
on ourselves and others is another, — and so I 
might go on and mention a great many others. 



188 TI^E SAFE COMPASS. 

Now, let me give you a sample or two of these 
fruits, when they become ripe. Here is a sam- 
ple of the fruit forgiveness of injury. 

A slave, in one of the West India Islands, was 
noticed by his master very carefully watching 
over a poor broken down negro, who had been 
bought with a lot of others some days before. 
He shared his bed with him ; fed him at his 
own table ; carried him into the sunshine, when 
cold, and into the shade, when the sun was hot. 
He was so very kind to him, that his master 
thought he must be a near relation, and he 
inquired if he were his father ? 

" No, massa," was the answer. 

" Is he an elder brother ?" 

" No, massa." 

" Perhaps he is your uncle, or some other re- 
lation?" 

" No, massa, no relation ; he not even my 
friend." 

" Then why are you so kind to him ?" 

" He my enemy, massa," said the slave, " he 
sold me to the slave-dealer ; but my Bible tell 
me, when my enemy hunger, feed him ; when 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GAKDEX. 189 

he thirst, give him drink." What a lovely fruit 
this was ! 

Here is an example of submission to God, 
which is another of the fruits that grow in this 
garden. A little girl had been attacked with 
sudden pain in the head, which ended in her 
becoming blind. She was taken to a celebrated 
eye-doctor, who examined her eyes, and then 
took her mother aside, and told her that noth- 
ing could be done for her daughter. The poor 
child wanted to know what the doctor said 
about her eyes. Her mother told her. " What, 
mother ! M exclaimed the child, " am I never more 
to see the sun, nor the beautiful fields and 
flowers ; nor you, my dear mother, nor my 
father ?" She wrung her hands in sorrow and 
wept bitterly. Nothing seemed to give her the 
slightest comfort, till her mother took a pocket 
Bible from the table, and put it her hands. 

" What is this, mother ?" inquired the poor, 
sorrowing child. 

" It is the Bible, my dear," said her mother. 
In a moment the poor sufferer became quiet. 
She thought at once, of one after another of the 



190 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

sweet texts she had learned in that blessed 
book. She paused, turned her poor sightless 
eyeballs towards the ceiling, and a sweet, angel- 
like expression played over her face, while she 
breathed forth in earnest, though gently whis- 
pering tones, the words — " Thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven." Ah ! that was a pre- 
cious fruit ; and just what we might expect to 
find in God's garden. 

It is surprising what a great amount of ex- 
cellent fruit will often grow in this garden 
from the very smallest seed. 

In London, there is a large building, called 
Exeter Hall. It is used chiefly to hold relig- 
ious meetings and anniversaries in. Once they 
were holding a Sunday-school anniversary there. 
A clergyman was addressing the children. He 
told them about two bad little boys, whom he 
had once known, and a good little girl, whom 
he afterwards learned to know. One day, this 
little girl was going home from Sunday-school, 
where she had learned to try to be like Jesus, 
" who went about doing good." On her way 
home she saw two little boys, about her own 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GAKDEN. 191 

age, quarreling. She went up to them, and 
told them how wickedly they were acting. 
She made them stop quarreling, and finally 
persuaded them to go to her Sunday-school. 
The boys were named Jim and Tom. The girl 
was called little Mary Wood. 

" Now, children," said the gentleman, " would 
you like to see Jim ?" 

With one voice they all shouted, " Yes." 

" Jim, stand up," said the gentleman, looking 
to another part of the platform. A tall, rever- 
end-looking gentleman, dressed in black, and 
wearing a white cravat, arose and looked 
smilingly upon the children. 

" There," said the speaker, " that is Jim. 
He has been a missionary for several years, in 
one of the South Sea Islands. Now would you 
like to see Tom ?" 

" Yes, yes, sir," was heard all over the house. 

" Here he is," said the speaker, straightening 
himself up ; " he, too, has been a missionary for 
years." 

" And, now, would you like to see little 
Mary Wood ?" 



192 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

" Yes, yes ; oh, yes 1" burst forth in a perfect 
storm of voices. 

" Well ; do you see that lady over there, 
with a black velvet bonnet, putting down her 
vail, and blushing like a rose ? That's little 
Mary Wood. And now I have a secret to tell 
you. She is my wife /" That good girl sowed 
a very little seed in God's garden. The fruit 
which it bore was, two missionaries to the 
heathen, with all the good resulting from their 
labors. 

But, prayer is the plant in this garden on 
which the fruit grows most abundantly. Let me 
tell you about the fruit yielded by the prayer 
of a little child. Her name was Minnie. Her 
home used to be a very happy and comfortable 
one ; but her father had taken to drinking. 
This had brought them to great poverty, and 
almost broken her poor mother's heart. One 
evening he came home just as Minnie had 
kneeled down to say her prayers. Hearing 
her little voice, he stood still a moment, as he 
entered the room, and listened. The dear 
child was praying thus : " Oh, God ! make 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 193 

father leave off his evil ways ; make him my 
own dear father, once again. Make dear 
mother's sad looks go away, and make her old 
smile come back ; but Thy will be done !" 

Minnie's mother burst into tears, as she 
threw her arms around her husband's neck, and 
said, " Oli, my husband, for the sake of that 
dear child, let us all be happy again !" 

The poor man bowed his head and wept. 
Then, clasping his hands, he said, " By the help 
of God, you shall have no more sorrow on my 
account." And he kept his word. Dear little 
Minnie's prayer saved her father from going 
down to a drunkard's grave. 

Wasn't that a precious fruit that grew on 
the plant of prayer ? I might give you a great 
many more samples of the same kind. But 
there is no time. I must hasten on to the other 
part of our subject. Perhaps I have said 
enough to show why the Sunday-school is called 
a garden. It is called a garden, because of 
what is done for it ; and because of what grows 
in it. 

But, then, there is another question we were 
17 



194 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

to ask about this garden, and that is, What 
does Jesus come into it for? 

He comes for three things. One of these is, to 
ivatcli the growth of the plants. If you have a bed, 
which you call your own, in your father's garden, 
you feel a great interest in watching the flowers 
every day, and. seeing how they grow. You 
will go into the garden every morning, and 
notice every new leaf that opens, and every 
fresh bud that appears. If you find the ground 
getting hard, you will loosen it. If it be dry, 
you will water it. If one of your plants seems 
weak and drooping, 3*011 will put a stick in for 
it to lean on. If it shoots out a long, slender 
branch, you will be very careful to train it in the 
right direction, and to tie it up to the trellis, 
or to a stronger branch of the bush, so as to 
keep it from trailing on the ground. If you 
find a worm gnawing at the root, or insects 
eating away the leaves of your flowers, you 
will take them away, and clo everything you 
can to make them grow and flourish. And this 
is just what Jesus does in His garden. Only 
He does a great deal more, and does it better, 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 195 

too, than we can. You know we can't be all 
the time in our garden. We are obliged often 
to go away and leave it, for hours, and perhaps 
for days together. Jesus never leaves his 
garden. He is in it all the time. He says, 
in one place in the Bible, " I will water it 
every moment ; lest any hurt it, I will keep 
it night and day." Is. xxvii. 3. Jesus is in 
his garden now. He is here this afternoon. 
He is in our school every Sunday, watching the 
plants and flowers, whether they grow and 
flourish. He looks to see if we are minding 
our teachers, and listening attentively to learn 
the lessons taught us in His blessed Word. 
Suppose we could see the glorious Saviour 
walking up and down between the classes, and 
watching us, how should we feel ? We can't 
see Him ; but He is here. We can't see 
Him in our school — but He is there. He says 
in our text, " I am come into my garden." 
This doesn't mean that he comes, once a year — • 
but that he is doing it all the time. He is 
always in His garden. He is there, ready to 
hear us when we pray ; ready to help us when 



196 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

we need ; ready to guide and comfort and 
bless us. Oh, remember the text whenever 
you enter the school and take your seat in your 
class. Think that you hear Jesus say, " I am 
come into my garden." He comes to see what 
flowers are opening, — what fruits are ripening. 
He comes to watch the growth of the jplants. 
This is one thing for which he comes. 

Another thing for which He comes, is, to en- 
joy the beauty of the flowers. If you have a 
garden, and are fond of flowers, you will find 
great enjoyment in it. You take pleasure 
in walking about to watch the seeds as they 
spring up, and see the new leaves and sprouts 
shoot forth from the plants. When your rose 
bush begins to bloom, what interest you take 
in noticing how the buds swell out, more and 
more, till at last they burst open, and unfold 
all their beautiful leaves to your sight ! You 
love to smell the sweet fragrance of the flowers ; 
and you love to watch the different appearance 
which they present from day to day. And 
now, perhaps, you are ready to ask, but can 
Jesus have any such feelings as these in refer- 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 197 

ence to His garden ? Certainly He has. No 
gardener ever took half as much delight in the 
flowers he is raising as Jesus takes in His. 
Every Christian child, and every one who is 
trying to become a Christian, is a flower in the 
Saviour's garden, and nobody can tell how 
much pleasure Jesus takes in watching them. 
No mother ever loved her darling child as 
Jesus loves His children. It says, in two 
places, in this book of Canticles, where our 
text is, that "He feedeth among the lilies." 
Cant. ii. 16, vi. 3. This shows us what delight 
He takes in being among them. You know 
there are two things about a flower which are 
pleasing ; these are its sweet smell, and its 
beautiful color. It is very pleasing to know that 
Jesus calls children who love and serve Him, 
His flowers. Yes, when we are trying to over- 
come all proud, or angry or selfish feelings, and 
to be kind, and gentle, loving, and obedient chil- 
dren, then we are flowers in the garden of Jesus, 
more pleasing to Him than the most fragrant 
bud is, to us, when it blooms in its beauty, and 
fills the air all round with its fragrance. 
17* 



198 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

We love to do anything that we know will 
give pleasure to our parents and friends • how 
much more we should love to do what we know 
will be most pleasing to our glorious Saviour. 
He loves, above all things, to see the plants in 
his garden growing and bearing flowers. He 
enjoys the beauty of the flowers. This is what 
He comes into His garden for. Oh, who would 
not wish to be one of the flowers of Jesus ? 

But then there is another thing for which He 
comes into His garden. He comes to gather the 
flowers. When a gardener is walking through 
his garden if he sees a flower more beautiful 
than the rest, and which pleases him very 
much, he will be very likely to pluck that flower 
from the stem on which it is growing, and put 
it in his bosom, where he can admire its beauty 
and enjoy its fragrance ; or perhaps, if he has a 
conservatory or greenhouse, opening into his 
parlor or study, he will take up the plant which 
bears that sweet flower, and put it in a flower- 
pot, and have it placed among the very choicest 
flowers in his greenhouse, where it will be shel- 
tered from the frost and the cold air, and will 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 199 

have better care taken of it, than it can have 
while growing out in the garden. 

And does Jesus do anything like this in His 
garden ? Certainly He does. Yon know how 
many dear children die while they are quite 
young. Well, what becomes of them ? Ah ! 
they are the flowers which Jesus has gathered 
and placed in His own bosom, or which He has 
transplanted to the greenhouse of the skies — to 
the garden of the heavenly paradise! We 
thought they were very sweet when we saw their 
beautiful buds opening here with us. And so 
they were. But what should we think if we 
could see them now, as they are blooming and 
flourishing in the Saviour's garden above ? Let 
me give you a few samples of these gathered 
flowers which Jesus has taken to Himself. 

I was reading the other day of a little boy, 
only two years old, who had been taught to put 
up his baby-hands and offer his little prayer to 
Jesus. When dying, he looked at his father 
and said, "By-by, Pa : baby going to sleep ;" and 
then he shut his little eyes never to open them 
again till the angel's trumpet shall waken him. 



200 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

There was another little boy, three years 
old, who was just sinking into the arms of death. 
He said to his father, who was standing by his 
side, " Father, there is beyond the sky, a heaven 
of joy and love !" 

There was another, a blind boy, who looked 
up as he was dying, and said — " I see a light ; 
it's heaven — 'it's heaven I" 

There was a little Sunday-school boy who, 
when taken sick, was at first afraid to die. 
Turning to his mother, he said : " The valley 
of death is very dark : mother, wont you go 
with me?" His poor mother couldn't say a 
word ; she could only burst into tears. The 
little fellow then put his face towards the wall 
and prayed. Presently he turned to his sor- 
rowing mother, with a sweet look, and said : 
" Mother, the valley isn't dark now, for Jesus 
is with me. I can go now." And then he died. 

Little Annie T. died when she was three 
years and three months old. On her death bed 
she called for her father. When he came to 
her bedside she said : " Pray — read." " What 
shall I read ?" asked her father. " About Jesus," 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 201 

was her reply. When he had finished, she said : 
"Sing, sing of Jesus." When they stopped, 
she cried, " More, more of Jesus. And as she 
sank in death the words which they heard lin- 
gering in whispers on her lips were : " Jesus, 
Jesus I" 

James B. Jones died when he was nine years 
old. Before he died, he said to his parents : 
" I am so happy I know not what to do. God 
loves me, and has pardoned all my sins for 
Jesus' sake. Who would have thought that 
God would be so kind to such a little boy as I 
am. Oh, I am so happy — I am so happy I" And 
thus Jesus gathered this sweet flower to Him- 
self. 

I might go on, for ever so long, giving you 
samples of these gathered flowers, which Jesus 
has taken to Himself. All these that I have 
spoken of, thus far, have been gathered from 
other parts of our Saviour's garden. If there 
were time, I could tell you of many dear young 
flowers that Jesus has gathered from my own 
part of the Sunday-school garden. And every 
faithful minister of Jesus could do the same. 



202 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

The names of many sweet children who have 
glorified Jesus in their happy deaths, are fresh 
in our memories. 

And then how many, younger than these, 
baby-flowers, just in the bud, Jesus has gathered 
from our gardens ! These were too young to 
be in school ; but they belonged to Jesus ; and 
He has gathered them to Himself. I think I 
see them now, with their sweet angel-like faces, 
as we took our last look, before the coffin-lid was 
screwed down upon them. But they are all 
with Jesus now. They are flowers which He 
has taken from our garden down here, to have 
them near Himself in heaven. 

Jesus comes into His garden to watch the 
growth of the flowers — to enjoy the oeauty of 
the flowers — and to gather the flowers to Rim- 
self. 

Now let us see if we can recollect the impor- 
tant parts of this sermon. The text is in Can- 
ticles v. 1, "lam come into my garden." The 
sermon is about Jesus coming into His Gar- 
den. We have considered the Sunday-school 
as the garden of Jesus. And then we had two 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 203 

questions : Why is the Sunday -school like a 
garden f And what does Jesus come into it 
for? 

In answering the first question, we said the 
Sunday-school is like a garden because of what 
is done for it. It is fenced — and weeded — 
the soil is improved — seeds and plants are put 
into it — and it is watered and cared for. 

The Sunday-school is like a garden also be- 
cause of what grows in it, viz., flowers and 
fruits. 

In answering the other question, we said that 
Jesus comes into his garden to watch the growth 
of the flowers — to enjoy the beauty of the flow- 
ers — and to gather the flowers to Himself. 

Now, my dear children, there are two things 
I wish you especially to remember in connection 
with this subject. Remember what God ex- 
pects us to do for others. God expects us to 
get others into His garden. How many chil- 
dren there are in our own land, and in other 
lands, who have no Sunday-school, no Bibles, 
no teachers. They are not in God's garden. 
They are out in the broad common of the world. 






204 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

God wants us to help bring them into His gar- 
den. And when we make our offerings to send 
the Bible to those children and have them 
taught and cared for, then we are doing just 
what God desires us to do. You know our 
Saviour said to His disciples, " Freely ye have 
received, freely give. 7 ' And He says the same 
to us. Then let us be very thankful to Him 
for bringing us into His garden, and let us try 
all we can to bring others in also. This is 
what God expects us to do for others. Re- 
member this. 

And then remember too what God expects its 
to do for ourselves. He expects us to take good 
care of our part of the garden. Every one of 
you, my dear children, has a bed in God's gar- 
den to take care of. Your own heart is that 
bed. Oh, be sure that you take good care of it. 
Put plenty of good seed in it. Be careful in 
reading and trying to understand God's word. 
That is the good seed. And be careful to keep 
the weeds out of your garden bed. Remember 
if you give way to proud feelings — or peevish, 
fretful, angry feelings ; if you are selfish, or un- 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL GARDEN. 205 

truthful, or disobedient, then you are letting 
great, ugly weeds spring up, and grow in your 
part of God's garden. Watch for the weeds, 
Oh, watch for the weeds. Pull them up at 
once. Don't let them stay a moment after you 
find them. And pray God for Jesus' sake to 
keep the weeds from growing in your hearts. 
Prayer has a wonderful power to keep these 
weeds from growing. 

I was reading lately of a dear little girl 
who had a cross little brother. One day he 
struck his sister. His mother was going to 
punish him for it. But Mary, his sister, said, 
"Please, mother, don't punish him, I think I 
can teach him not to strike me again." She 
took him out of the room. Her mother went 
after them to see what she would do. Mary 
went with him into another room and closed 
the door. Then she made him kneel down by 
a chair, and she knelt by his side, and offered 
this sweet, simple prayer over him, " Lord, 
forgive my little brother for striking me. Give 
him a new heart that he may not strike me any 
more ; and if he does strike me, or push me, 
18 



206 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

put it into my heart not to strike him back, but 
to say, ' Don't do so, little brother. 7 Lord, hear 
me for Jesus' sake. Amen !" Ah, that little 
girl knew how to keep the weeds out of her 
garden-bed. Follow her example. Then your 
garden will flourish and Jesus will look on it 
and come into it with pleasure. 



VII. 

%\t Map at gflittg §as)s. 

"Jesus . . . went about doing good." — Acts x. 38. 



VII. 

" Jesus . . . went about doing good." — Acts x. 38. 

What a beautiful description this is of the 
life of Jesus ! When we hear of any great 
mail we always want to know how he lived, 
and what lie used to do. General Washington 
was a great man, and all the young people in 
this country like to read, or hear about him. 
We don't get tired of the interesting stories 
told of him. We like to hear of the boy George 
Washington, — about the hatchet and the cher- 
ry tree, — and how he wouldn't tell a lie. We 
like to hear about his giving up being a mid- 
shipman, when he wanted to be one so very 
much, because he was unwilling to do anything 
that would make his mother feel unhappy. We 
like to read about George Washington when a 
young colonel fighting the Indians, and how 
the Indian warrior took aim at him, ever so 
many times in one day, and tried to kill him, 

18* (209) 



210 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

but found tie couldn't do it. And we like to 
read of Washington, the commander in chief 
of the American armies, in the darkest days of 
the Revolutionary war, when he used to go all 
alone by himself in the snow-covered woods, 
and kneel down and pray that God would 
show him what to do, and help him to save 
the country. 

And then there was Benjamin Franklin, 
the great philosopher, — and Christopher Co- 
lumbus, the great discoverer — and Peter the 
Great of Russia — and Alfred the Great of 
England, and multitudes of other distinguished 
men. We like to read about them, and find 
out how they used to live, because they were 
great men. But you may put these, and all 
the other great men, that ever lived, all to- 
gether, aud yet, when you come to compare 
them with Jesus, they are only just like one of 
the tiniest little stars you see shining in the 
sky at night, when compared with the sun. 
Jesus was the wisest, and the best, and the 
greatest man that ever lived. He was God as 
well as man. He lived on earth not for Him- 



THE WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 211 

self, but for us. He lived on earth for you and 
me. He came to do good to you and me, as 
well as to the Jews who lived 1,800 years ago. 
Oh, surely then, it is worth while for us to think 
and talk about Him. 

"Jesus . . . went about doing good." This needs 
no explanation. It is very plain and simple. Why, 
I suppose every one of these Infant School chil- 
dren knows what it means to " go about doing 
good." " Jesus . . . went about doing good," be- 
cause He loved to do good, and because He 
was so able to do it. He could do good as no 
one else in the world ever could. He hadn't 
much money. For though He made the world, 
and all things in it, yet when He was here, on 
earth, He was so poor that He said, " The foxes 
have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; 
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His 
head." But though He had no money to give 
away He could do good in hundreds of other 
ways. He could heal the sick, whatever their 
diseases were. He could make the blind see, 
and the deaf hear, and the lame walk. He 
could raise the dead to life again in a moment. 



212 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

He could feed thousands of people with two or 
three small loaves of bread, and then have more 
bread left, when they were done, than there 
was before they began. 

But there is another reason why " Jesus . . . 
went about doing good." He did it to show 
us how to live. We read in one place in 
the New Testament, that He " left us an ex- 
ample that we should follow his steps." 1 Pet. 
ii. 21. "Jesus . . . went about doing good," in 
order to show you and me, and all people, how 
we ought to live. And this is what I wish 
to talk to you about this afternoon. When 
you go home from church, if anybody asks you 
what was the sermon about ? tell them it was 
about the best ways of doing good. I wish to 
speak to you about four ways in which we 
should all try to be doing good. 

The first way in ivhich we should try to do 
good is by becoming christians ourselves. 

True Christians are the most useful people 
in the world. They are doing good all the 
time. You know that many of our houses and 
other large buildings, have iron-rods running 



THE WATS OF DOING GOOD. 213 

from above the top of the chimney, along the 
sides of the building down into the ground. 
What are those rods called ? Lightning-rods. 
Often, when thunder storms come up, we hear 
of houses being struck by lightning. Some- 
times these houses are very much injured, and 
the people living in them are killed. Those 
lightning rods are intended to protect the 
houses. They carry the lightning off, into the 
ground, and prevent it from doing any harm. 
Liohtnins: rods are verv useful things. And 
true Christians are like lightning-rods. When 
God is angry with wicked people for their sins, 
He is often kept from punishing them, on ac- 
count of the good Christians — the praying 
people — who live among them. 

You remember reading in the Bible about 
Sodom and Gomorrha. The inhabitants of those 
cities were so wicked that God said He would 
destroy them. Abraham prayed for those cities 
because he had a nephew. Lot, living there. He 
asked God to be pleased not to destroy them, 
if He found ten righteous persons there ; and 
God promised that He would not, if He found 



214 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

that many good people there. But Lot was the 
only good man found there. So Lot was sent 
away, and then those guilty cities were burned 
up. If there had been ten Christians in Sodom, 
they would have acted like lightning-rods, to 
those cities, and have saved them. 

You know how useful the light is which 
shines out from the sun. Well, Jesus compares 
Christians to the light. He said to His disci- 
ples, " Ye are the light of the world." If we 
were travelling along a dangerous road, full of 
pits and precipices, the light would be very 
useful to show us where the road lay, and how 
we might keep out of the pits along the road. 
Now, in living in this world, we are travelling 
along a road that is full of dangers. But true 
Christians are the only ones who can see these 
dangers, and know how to avoid them. God 
teaches them this by His blessed spirit. And 
for this reason they are compared to the light. 
And if we would be like lights in the world, 
showing people the dangers that are about 
them, and how they may escape those dangers, 
and get to heaven at last, then we must become 



THE WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 215 

true Christians. This means that we must 
have our wicked hearts changed, and learn to 
love Jesus, and be like Him. To be a Chris- 
tian is to be like Jesus. Being baptized and 
belonging to the Church won't make us true 
Christians, unless our hearts are changed, and 
we are taught to love Jesus. And we never 
can begin to do good, in the right way, until we 
become Christians ourselves. Here, for in- 
stance, is a watch. A watch is a very useful 
thing. It is useful to tell the time of day. The 
inside of the watch is full of works. In the 
midst of these works is what is called the main- 
spring. It is the main-spring which makes the 
watch go and keep good time. But suppose 
the main-spring of my watch is broken, will it 
keep time ? No. Well, then, if I want my 
watch to go about with me " doing good," or 
being useful, what must I do with it ? Take it 
to the watch-maker, and get a new main-spring 
put in it. But you and" I are are just like a 
watch. Our hearts are like the main-spring. 
A wicked heart is like a broken main-spring. 
If you have a wicked heart, a heart that has 



216 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

not been changed, you cannot begin to be useful, 
or to " go about doing good" in the right way. 
You must take your heart to Jesus, and ask 
Him to change it ; to give you a new heart ; to 
put a new main-spring, in the broken watch of 
your soul. Then it will be ready to keep time, 
to do good, or to be useful in the right way. 
And you need not wait till you grow up to be 
men and women before you do this. You may 
do it now. 

One day, a lady was teaching a class of little 
girls in Sunday-school. She was talking to 
them about the very thing of which I am now 
speaking to you. " My dear children," she 
said, " how soon may we give our hearts to 
God, and become true Christians?" They 
didn't answer at first. Then she spoke to them 
one by one. Turning to the oldest scholar in 
the class, she asked, ''What do you say, Mary?" 

" "When we are thirteen." 

" What do you say, Jane ?" 

" When we are ten." 

" What do you say, Susan ?" 

" When we are six." 




LITTLE LILLTE'S ANSWER. 



The Safe Compass 



p. 217 



THE WATS OF DOING GOOD. 217 

At last she came to little Lillie, the youngest 
scholar in the class. 

" Well, Lillie," she said, " and how soon do 
you think we may give our hearts to God ?" 

" Just as soon as we feel that we are sinners, 
and know who God is !" said Lillie. 

How beautiful an answer that was ! and how 
true ! Yes, " as soon as you feel that you are 
a sinner and know who God is," you may give 
Him your heart, and become a Christian. 

This is the first way in ivhich we should try 
to he doing good, by becoming Christians our- 
selves. 

But the second way in which we are to do 
good, is by trying to make others christians. 

Suppose you were travelling through a hot 
sandy desert, with a company of friends. You 
have no water, and are almost perishing from 
thirst. You separate from one another, and go 
in different directions searching for water. 
Presently you find a spring of clear, cool, beau- 
tiful water. You kneel down and take a nice 
long drink. And, then, what would be the 
next thing you would do ? Why, at the top of 
19 



218 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

your voice you would' cry out — " Water ! — water ! 
Come this way ; — here is water !" You would 
want your friends to come, and drink of the 
water, that had refreshed you. And this is just 
the way we should feel when we become Chris- 
tians ourselves. We should want to have our 
friends and others become Christians, too. We 
should feel just as the little heathen girl did 
in England. She had been taken, from the 
Island of New Zealand, to England with the 
children of some missionaries, to be educated. 
While there she became a Christian. Before this 
she was so pleased with living in England that 
she didn't care about going back to her own 
country. But as soon as she learned to love 
Jesus, she became very anxious to go home ; 
and when some of her friends tried to persuade 
her to stay where she was, she said : "Do you 
think I can keep the good news to myself? 
No ; I want to go home and tell my friends 
there about Jesus." 

She was trying to do good in this second way 
that we are now speaking of. 

Some time ago an old man gave his heart to 



THE WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 219 

Jesus, and became a Christian. Soon after 
this, he began to think how he could make him- 
self useful and be doing good. He had a great 
many friends who were very wicked men. He 
was very anxious that these should become 
Christians too. He made out a list of the 
names of his old associates. When he had 
finished this list, and counted it over, he found 
that it contained one hundred and sixteen 
names. Some of these were infidels, some were 
drunkards, and some were among the worst 
men in the town, where he lived. He began 
to pray for these people. He talked to them 
when he had an opportunity, and gave them 
tracts and good books to read. Some refused 
to listen to him, and others made fun of him ; — 
but still he went on praying and working for 
them, and trying to do them good. And what 
was the result ? Why within two years from 
the time when that old man became a Chris- 
tian — one hundred of the persons whose names 
were on his list had become Christians too! 
That was doing good indeed ! 

A Christian gentleman was travelling on a 



220 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

steamboat. He took some tracts out and scat- 
tered them about for the passengers to read. 
Many were glad to get them, and read them 
carefully. But one gentleman was there who 
disliked religion and religious people very 
much. He took one of the tracts and doubled 
it up, and then deliberately took out his pen- 
knife and cut it all up into little pieces. He 
then held up his hand and scattered the pieces 
over the side of the boat, to show his contempt 
for religion. When he had done this he saw 
one of the pieces sticking to his coat. He 
picked it off and looked at it, a moment, before 
throwing it away. On one side of that bit of 
paper was only one word. It was the word — 
"God." He turned it over, on the other side 
was the word — "Eternity." He threw away 
the bit of paper. He got rid of that easily 
enough — but those two solemn words — " God" 
and " Eternity" he could not get rid of. He 
tried drinking — he tried gambling ; — to drive 
those words from his mind, — but it was of no 
use. They haunted him wherever he went, and 
he never had any comfort till he became a 



THE WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 221 

Christian. That little piece of paper, with 
those two words upon it, was the means of his 
conversion. 

But now let me tell you a story to show you 
how a Sunday-school scholar may do good in 
the way of which I am speaking. Little Mary 
was a Sunday-school scholar. Her mother was 
dead, and she tried to take her place in the 
family as much as she could. Her father never 
went to church, but to Mary's great grief was 
getting into the way of going to the tavern at 
night, and would sometimes come home drunk. 
Mary had a very kind and faithful Sunday- 
school teacher. Through God's blessing on 
her prayers and teaching Mary became a Chris- 
tian. She had always loved her father, — but 
now she loved him more than ever. She was 
very anxious that he should become a Christian. 
But what could she do? She knew if she 
should speak to him about it, he would be very 
angry. After thinking and praying over it a 
great deal, she took a slip of paper and wrote 
upon it — " Papa, won't you be a Christian ?" 
This she left upon the table in his room. In 
19* 



222 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

the morning when he got up it was almost the 
first thing that met his eyes. He read it over 
— " Papa, won't you be a Christian ?" He tore 
it in little pieces, and throwing it on the floor, 
stamped on it with his feet. 

Mary was sorry, but she didn't give up. The 
next night she wrote again — " Papa, do be a 
Christian !" and left it in the same place. Her 
father read it. He was angry, but did not tear 
it as before ; he put it in his pocket and went 
out. All that day the words were ringing in 
his ears — "Papa, do be a Christian." They 
made him think of his mother and the prayers 
she taught him, and his heart began to soften. 
That night Mary wrote on another slip of pa- 
per — " Papa, won't you be a Christian ? — tell 
Mary." In the morning she was up very early, 
and busy about the breakfast, but listening with 
a beating heart to the sounds that came from her 
father's room. She heard the bit of paper 
rustle in his hands, — and then these words — 
"Mary! — where are you, Mary?" In a mo- 
ment she was sobbing in her father's arms, with 
her face close to his, feeling, I cannot tell you 



THE WATS OP DOING GOOD. 223 

how happy. That was the beginning of a 
great change in her home. Her father soon 
became a Christian. Mary was a feeble little 
girl, yet she was the means of doing a great 
deal of good. 

The second way of doing good is by trying 
to make others Christians. 

The third toay of doing good is by helping 

THE SICK AND POOR. 

When Jesus was on earth while ready to do 
good to all men, he was always especially ready 
to help the poor. He kept company with them 
more than with the rich. He did everything 
in his power to help and comfort them. He 
told his disciples that whenever they did a 
kindness to one of his poor he would consider 
it as done to himself. He said that even " a 
cup of cold water" given to one of them would 
be remembered and rewarded by Him. And 
the apostle James tells us that a great part of 
true religion consists in " visiting the fatherless 
and widows ;" that means, the poor and the sick, 
in their affliction, and in trying to help and 
comfort them. How singular it is that we find 



224 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

poor people everywhere ! God might have 
made the world without having poor people in 
it. But He thought it best to have poor people. 
He says in the Bible — " I will leave in the 
midst of you an afflicted and poor people." 
One reason why God does this is, that we might 
have an opportunity of " doing good" by try- 
ing to help and comfort the poor and afflicted. 
And this is a work that every one can help in. 
Young people are apt to think that it is only 
their fathers and mothers, and persons who are 
grown up, who can do good by visiting and 
helping poor and sick people. But this is a 
great mistake. Children can do good in this 
way as well as grown people. 

Let me tell you what good a little girl did, in 
the way of which I am now speaking, and then 
you can see what you may do, if you are willing 
to try. 

Mary Parsons was a bright, happy little girl. 
And the reason why she was so happy was that 
she was always trying to do good to somebody. 
One day a lady, who lived in their neighbor- 
hood, called in to see Mary's mother. This 



THE WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 225 

lady had just been visiting a poor old woman 
who lived not far off from them, and she stopped 
in to talk about her. The poor old woman 
was eighty-six years old. She lived by herself 
in a dark, damp cellar. She had no money, 
and no relatives, and had nothing to live on but 
what the kind neighbors sent in to her, from 
time to time. Mary listened with great interest 
while the lady was speaking, and then she said, 
" mother, please let me carry her over some 
breakfast and dinner every day : we have so 
much left, much more than she could eat." 
Mary was so earnest about it that her mother 
said she might do it. And there you might 
have seen this little girl, after breakfast and 
after dinner each day, filling a small basket 
with nice things from the table, and carrying 
them down street to old Mrs. Gordon. Many 
a fine apple, and peach, and plum, and pear, she 
slipped into the basket for the poor old woman. 
No matter how anxious her little sisters were 
for Mary to play with them ; no matter whether 
it was hot or cold, wet or dry, Mary never got 
tired, and never forgot to have the breakfast 



226 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

and dinner ready for her old friend. Some- 
times she would take the Bible and read some 
of its beautiful chapters, for the poor woman 
was almost blind, and to hear God's precious 
word read was a great comfort to her. Some- 
times Mary would take her doll's frocks and sit 
down by her side, and chat away merrily to 
amuse her. 

And how do you suppose old Mrs. Gordon 
felt towards this dear child for all her kindness ? 
When she was speaking about her, one day, her 
eyes filled with tears, as she said, " Oh, she 
brings a ray of sunshine with her, every time 
she comes, and it seems to brighten my dark 
room long after she is gone. God bless her ! 
She is one of the dear lambs of Jesus I am 
sure." 

Now you see how beautifully Mary was do- 
ing good in this third way that I am speaking 
of. Yet Mary Parsons was only eight years 
old when she began to do this. Is there no 
poor old woman, or sick and hungry child in 
your neighborhood, to whom you can take food 
from your table that would not be missed ? 



THE WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 227 

" Jesus went about doing good." See if you 
can't follow his example in this third way by 
helping the sick and poor. 

The fourth and last way of doing good, of 
ichich I would speak, is by being kind to all. 

Jesus was all the time speaking kind words, 
and doing kind things. See, there He is enter- 
ing into a city called Nain. As He draws 
near there is a funeral coming out. The dead 
person is a young man, " the only son of his 
mother, and she is a widow." Ah ! how sad 
and sorrowful she feels, as she follows her dar- 
ling boy to the grave ! How lonely she will 
feel when she goes back to her empty house ! 
Her heart is almost broken. Jesus knows how 
she feels. He pities her. With a kind and 
tender voice he says to her, " Weep not." But 
how can she help weeping when her only son is 
dead? Jesus knows this. So He stops the 
funeral. He goes up to the corpse and says, 
" Young man, I say unto thee, arise." In a mo- 
ment he opens his eyes. He gets up, and Jesus 
gives him back, alive, to the arms of his rejoic- 
ing mother. Ah ! that was doing good indeed ! 



228 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

We can't do good in that way. True. But 
we can do good by kindness in many ways. 

One day, a gentleman saw two boys going 
along one of the streets in New York. They 
were barefooted. Their clothes were ragged 
and dirty, and tied together by pieces of string. 
One of the boys was perfectly happy over a 
half-withered bunch of flowers which he had 
just picked up in the street. " I say, Billy," 
said he to his companion, " wasn't somebody 
real good to drop these 'ere posies jest where I 
could find them — and they're so pooty and 
nice? Look sharp, Billy, mebby you'll find 
something bimeby." Presently the gentleman 
heard his merry voice again, saying, " jolly ! 
Billy, if here aint most half a peach, and 'taint 
much dirty neither. 'Cause you hain't found 
no thin' you may bite first." Billy was just go- 
ing to take a very little taste of it, when his 
companion said, "Bite bigger, Billy, mebby we'll 
find another 'fore long." What a noble heart 
that poor boy had in spite of his rags and dirt ! 
He was " doing good" in the fourth way that 
we are speaking of. There was nobody for 



THE WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 229 

him to be kind to but his companion in poverty 
— the poor ragged boy at his side. But he was 
showing him all the kindness in his power when 
he said, " Bite bigger, Billy." There was noth- 
ing greedy, nothing selfish about that boy. 
His conduct shows us how even a poor ragged 
beggar boy can do good by showing kindness. 

" Bite bigger, Billy, — mebby we'll find an- 
other 'fore long." Who can help admiring the 
noble heart of that poor boy ? I would rather 
have that boy's kind and generous spirit than 
have a monarch's crown upon my head without 
it. " Bite bigger, Billy ;" think of these words 
if you are ever tempted to be unkind, or selfish 
to your companions. 

I remember reading not -long ago about a 
man and his wife who were known to live very 
unhappily together. They were said to be the 
most quarrelsome people in the whole village in 
which they lived. They wouldn't bear the least 
thing from each other. Like a cat and dog, 
there was a constant snarling, and growling, 
and quarreling between them. But all at once 
it was observed by some of their neighbors that 
20 



230 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

a great change had passed over them. They 
didn't quarrel any more. No harsh, cross 
words passed between them. Instead of this, 
they were observed to be gentle and kind to 
each other, and their house from being a scene 
of constant strife, became the home of peace 
and happiness. Of course this excited a good 
deal of surprise in the neighborhood. Every- 
body was wondering what had happened to old 
Mr. and Mrs. Snarling. 

At last an old lady in the neighborhood, 
whom we may call Miss Inquisitive, felt that 
she couldn't stand it any longer. She must find 
out what it was. So she paid a visit to their 
house and said, " Mrs. Snarling, everybody in 
the village is talking about the wonderful 
change which has come over you and your hus- 
band. But nobody seems to know what it's 
owing to ; so I tho't I would just come in and ask 
you what it is which has produced this change?" 

"lam glad to see you, Miss Inquisitive," said 
Mrs. Snarling, " the change, I assure you, has 
been a very happy one to us. It has been 
brought about by two bears." 



THE WAYS OF DOING GOOD. • 231 

" Two bears ! " exclaimed Miss Inquisitive, 
lifting up her hands in astonishment. 

" Yes, two bears ; and I'm very glad they 
ever came into our house." 

" But what in nature do you mean ?" 

" I mean two Scripture bears." 

" Two Scripture bears ! why, you puzzle me 
more and more." 

" It's true, though." 

" I don't remember reading in Scripture of 
any two bears, except those that ate up the 
wicked children, who mocked the prophet 
Elisha ; and they must have been dead long ago." 

" Yes ; but there are two other bears men- 
tioned in Scripture." 

" Pray tell me where they are spoken of — for 
I'm sure I don't recollect 'em." 

" We read about one of them in Gal. vi. 2, 
where it says, " Bear ye one another's burdens." 
And we read about the other in Ephes. iv. 2, 
where it says, " Forbearing one another in love." 
Their names are — Bear and Forbear." 

Well, I'm sure !" said Miss Inquisitive, and 
away she went home. 



232 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

The simple meaning of it was that Mr. and 
Mrs. Snarling had become Christians, and had 
taken these two Scripture bears home to live 
with them. How I wish you would all take 
these two bears home with you this afternoon. 
Yes, and keep them there. Let them stay in the 
nursery — in the dining-room — in the chamber 
where you sleep — and in the play room. Take 
them with you when you go to school — make 
them your companions wherever you go. They 
make no noise. They cost nothing to keep. 
They can do no harm — but they may do a great 
deal of good. Oh, if these two bears were only 
allowed to come into every house, and dwell 
there, how much trouble and sorrow it would 
prevent ! and how much good it would do ! 

Now we have spoken of four ways in which 
we may do good ; — by becoming Christians our- 
selves ; by trying to make others Christians; 
by helping the sick and poor ; and by being kind 
to all. 

" Jesus went about doing good." Let us all 
pray that God may give us grace to become 
like him. We may make a suitable prayer for 



THE WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 233 

this subject out of the words of the hymn which 
leads us to look to Jesus and say — 

" Thy fair example may we trace 

To teach us what we ought to be ; 
Make us by Thy transforming grace, 
Dear Saviour ! daily more like Thee !" 



20^ 



VIII. 



"Jesus . . . said, It is more blessed to give than to 
receive."— Acts xx. 35. 



" Jesus . . . said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." 

Acts xx. 35. 

Our text for last month's sermon told us 
what Jesus did. He " went about doing good." 
Our text to-day tells us what Jesus said. He 
said "It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive." It is very pleasant to hear people talk 
about things with which we know that they are 
well acquainted ; but if a person attempts to 
speak to us on some subject, which we are sure 
beforehand that he knows nothing at all about 
— why, nobody wants to hear him. Suppose 
some one should give notice that he was going 
to deliver a lecture about the way in which 
houses are built in the moon ; would you care 
about going to hear him ? No. And why not ? 
You would say, at once, " the man doesn't know 
anything about that." But suppose that our 
noble townsman, Dr. Kane, after he had spent 
two winters up towards the North Pole, should 

(237) 



238 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

have given notice that he was going to lecture 
about the Polar regions, shouldn't we all have 
been very anxious to go and hear him ? Yes, 
for we should say, " he has been there himself, 
and he knows all about those regions." We 
like to hear people speak of things which we 
are sure that they understand. 

Well, when Jesus said, " It is more blessed 
to give than to receive," did He understand 
what He was speaking about ? Yes, He un- 
derstood it well. He knew all about it. And 
everything that Jesus said was true. And no- 
thing was ever more true than these words of 
our text. Some people don't believe that it is 
more blessed to give than to receive ; but Jesus 
says it is so ; and He knows best. 

Our sermon to-day will be about the blessed- 
ness of giving. 

I wish to give you three reasons why it is 
more blessed to give than to receive. The first 
reason is — that it is more like God. 

God is the greatest of all givers. It tells us 
in one place, in the Bible, that He is " the giver 
of every good and perfect gift." It tells us in 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 239 

another place that He " giveth to all, life and 
breath and all things." Who gave as our 
hands to work with ? God. Who gave us our 
feet to walk with ? God. Who gave us our 
ears to hear, and our tongues to talk with? 
God. Who gave us our minds to think, and 
our hearts to love with ? God . Who gave us 
these lungs to breathe with ? God. And who 
gives us the air, fresh and good, which we are 
breathing through these lungs all the time? 
God. We wake up every morning and find the 
beautiful light coming into our windows ; — 
who gives us the light ? God. Yes, God has 
been giving light to the world for six thousand 
years, and in all that time He has never stop- 
ped giving, for a single moment. We sit down 
to our tables, three times a day, when we are 
hungry, and there is good nourishing food for 
us to eat. Who gives us that food? God. 
We go out in the summer time to take a long 
walk. The sun is hot, and the road is dusty. 
After awhile we become very thirsty. Our 
tongues are parched, our throats are dry ; we 
long for a drink of water. Presently we come 



240 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

to a spring. There is a shady dell by the road- 
side. Beautiful green moss covers the rocks 
around the spring. At the foot of the rocks is 
a large, natural basin of clear, cool, crystal 
water. In the middle of the basin, we see the 
fountain bubbling up through the clean white 
sand and little pebbles at the bottom. We stoop 
down and drink. How cool ! how sweet ! how 
refreshing it is ! Who gives us this nice cool 
water ? God. Yes, God gives us our health 
—our strength — our clothes — our friends — 
our teachers — our parents — our homes — our 
churches — our ministers — our Bibles. We can- 
not mention a single thing we have that is 
necessary for us, or that helps to make us com- 
fortable that does not come from God. The 
Bible tells us that God "gives us richly all 
things to enjoy." 

I was reading lately of a little boy, who was 
trying to be like God, by being a giver. He 
loved to give. He would go to his father some- 
times half a dozen times in a day, with his 
bright eye sparkling, and his little round face 
all in a glow, and say, " Pa, I want a penny to 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIYING. 241 

give to a poor beggar at the door/' or " to the 
organ-grinder," or " to the little girl that wants 
cold victuals." And then, on Sunday mornings 
he would come and ask for something for the 
Sunday-school Missionary Society, and for many 
other things. His father wanted him to form 
the habit of giving, while he was young, and so 
he always let him have what he wanted, for 
these good objects. 

But, one day when he came to ask for some- 
thing, his father said to him, " My son, don't 
you think you give away a great deal of 
money ?" 

" Why, yes, Pa," said he, " and I do so love 
to give." 

" But then you come to me for all you give. 
It's not your own money that you are so liberal 
with." 

This seemed to be a new thought to the little 
fellow, and he turned away to his play, per- 
plexed a little by what his father had said to 
him. Presently, however, he came running back. 

" Papa," he asked, " who gives you the money 
that you give awav ?" 
21 



242 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

" I earn it by hard labor, my son." 

" But who gives you strength to labor with, 
Pa ?" asked the little fellow. 

" God gives us our strength," said his father. 

" And, Pa, haven't you often told me that God 
gives us everything ?" 

" Yes, my son, every good thing we have God 
gives us." 

" Well, Pa, I love to give away the money 
you give me, don't you love to give away the 
money God gives you ?" 

The father hugged the little prattler in his 
arms and kissed him ; gave him what he wanted 
and let him go. And then, that father sat down 
to think over the question which his dear child 
had asked him. Like a great many other peo- 
ple, he had forgotten that the money which he 
had was not his own, but God's. All the money 
in the world belongs to God. In one place in 
the Bible God says, " The gold is mine and the 
silver is mine." (Hag. ii. 8.) God doesn't 
give us money to keep : He only lends it to us, 
to use for him, and to do good with it. And 
when we die He will call us to give Him an 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 243 

account of the use we have made of it. God 
loves to give, and He loves to have His people 
give. God is such a wonderful Giver, that 
when He found we couldn't be saved, or be 
happy in any other way, " He gave His only 
begotten Son" to die for us. And when we 
learn to give, and love to give, we become like 
God in this respect. 

" It is more blessed to give than to receive," 
then, because it is more like God. 

This is our first reason. 

The second reason is that it is more useful. 
We can do more good by giving than by receiv- 
ing. Suppose God should stop giving for just 
one day ; what would be the consequence ? 
We should all die. Everything would perish. 
The world — the whole universe would go to 
ruin. Only think, then, how useful it is to us, 
that God is a giver ! Giving is more useful 
to ourselves than receiving ; and it is more 

Useful to OTHERS too. 

Now, everybody will admit that it is more 
useful to others to give than to receive ; but 
that it is more useful to ourselves, as well as to 



244 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

others, may not appear quite so plain. Yet it 
is true. 

For instance, suppose I want to have my arm 
become very strong. I ask one of my friends 
what is the best way to make my arm strong ? 
He says to me, " Carry it in a sling, and don't 
use it at all. When you use your arm, you 
waste its strength, and the more you use it the 
weaker it will get. But if you carry it in a 
sling without using it, it will become stronger 
every day." Well, I take his advice. I put my 
arm in a sling, and don't use it for anything. 
But I find, after awhile, that my arm is growing 
thinner and weaker all the time. Its strength 
is wasting away every day. This won't do. 
Then I ask another friend how I shall make my 
arm strong ! He gives me advice the very op- 
posite of what the other gave me. He says, 
" Take your arm out of that sling. Go to work 
at sawing, or splitting wood. Use your arm all 
you can. The more you use it, properly, the 
stronger it will grow. Look at that blacksmith ! 
He is wielding that heavy hammer all the time, 
and see what an arm of strength he has got !" 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 245 

I take this friend's advice. I throw away 
the sling, and use my arm all I can. And now 
[ find my arm growing stronger every day. 
Proper exercise for the arm is the best way to 
make it strong. 

And what is true of the arm is true of the 
heart too. Our hearts will grow larger, and 
stronger, and better, by proper exercise. And 
what do you suppose is the proper exercise for 
the heart ? Why, giving. If we are not in the 
habit of giving, our hearts have no proper ex- 
ercise. We are carrying them in a sling. A 
good many people carry their hearts in a sling 
all their lives. And the consequence is that 
their hearts grow narrow and little, and good 
for nothing. They become shriveled and dried. 
If they would begin to exercise their hearts by 
giving, they would find that what Jesus said is 
true : " It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive." It is more useful to ourselves. Did 
you ever hear the fable of " The Selfish Pool 
and The Liberal Spring?" This illustrates 
the point before us so nicely, that I must bring* 
it in here. 
21* 



246 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

There was a little spring or fountain away 
up among the mountains. It sent out a little 
stream of water, and said to it, " Now hurry 
down the mountain's side, and pour this water 
into the river that flows through yonder plain." 
Away went the stream, shining like a silver 
thread, and sparkling like a diamond, as it hur- 
ried on to bear its water to the river. 
Presently the stream passed by a stagnant 
pool. " Halloo ! Mister Streamlet," cried 
the pool, "where are you going in such a 
hurry ? " 

" I'm going to the river to carry it this water 
which God has given me." 

" You're a very silly creature," said the pool. 
" Don't you know that the summer will be here, 
by and by, and if you give away your water 
now, when the hot sun shines upon you, you'll 
dry up and perish." 

" Well," said the streamlet u if I am to die so 
soon, I had better work while the day lasts. 
If I am likely to lose this treasure from the 
heat, I had better do good with it, while I have 
it. Good-bye, Miss Pool," said the stream, and 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 247 

away it went, blessing and rejoicing everything 
in its course. 

The pool smiled at what she considered the 
folly of the stream, and said to herself, " You 
silly creature ! I wont part with a drop of my 
water, but will keep it all for my own use, when 
the hot days of summer come." 

Presently the heat of summer came, and fell 
upon that little stream. But the trees crowded 
to its brink, and threw their sheltering branches 
over it, for it had brought life and refreshment 
to them. The sun peeped through the branches 
and smiled upon its dimpled face, seeming to 
say, " Oh, I wont hurt you !" The little birds 
sipped its silver tide, and sang its praises ; the 
flowers breathed their fragrance on its bosom ; 
and the beasts of the field loved to linger by 
its banks ; and thus it went on blessing and 
blessed of all. 

Bat what about the prudent, selfish pool ? It 
didn't believe that " it is more blessed to give 
than to receive." It kept its waters. It be- 
came stagnant and unhealthy. The water grew 
thick and disagreeable. A green scum gather- 



248 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

ed on the surface of it. Neither the "birds or 
beasts would drink of it.' Even the frogs 
hopped away from it, and as the sun grew hot- 
ter and hotter, it dried up altogether. 

•But did the little stream dry up? Oh, no ! 
God took care of that. It carried its water to 
the river. The river bore it to the sea. The 
sun shone upon the sea, and warmed it. The 
vapors rose from its surface and formed clouds. 
The clouds floated away and emptied them- 
selves in rain upon the mountains. The little 
fountain was kept supplied, and though it gave 
away its water, so freely, it never dried up. 
What a beautiful illustration this fable affords 
of the truth and meaning of our Saviour's words 
when he said, " It is more blessed to give than 
to receive." It is so because it is more useful. 
It is more useful to ourselves. . 

But it is more useful to others as well as to 
ourselves. 

If we keep our money without using it, what 
good will it do either to ourselves or others ? 
There was once a Scottish nobleman, whose 
name and title was Lord Braco, He was very 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 249 

rich, but very miserly. He kept his own ac- 
counts himself, instead of having a steward to 
keep them, like other rich men, because he was 
unwilling to pay the salary of a steward. All 
the money he got he had changed into gold and 
silver, which he kept locked up in great iron 
chests, in a strong vault. He was so close and 
stingy about money, that one day when a farm- 
er, who rented a farm from him, came to pay 
his rent, the money he brought was just one 
farthing short, and, would you believe it ? he 
made the man go all the way back to his home, 
a distance of several miles, and get that far- 
thing before he would give him a receipt. 

Well, when it was all settled, the farmer said, 
" Now, Braco, I'll give you a shilling, if you'll 
let me see all the silver and gold you've 
got." 

" Agreed," said the miserly Lord. Then he 
took him into his vault, and opened the great 
iron chests, full of gold and silver, so that he 
could see it all. Then the farmer gave him the 
promised shilling, and said, " Now, Braco, I'm 
as rich as you are." 



250 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

" Ay, mon," said his lordship, " and how can 
that be ?" 

" Because Fve looked at your gold and silver 
and that is all yon will ever do with it." 

The farmer was right. Lord Braco's gold 
and silver would do no good, either to himself 
or any one else, while it was locked up unused. 

Now let us take an example of a different 
kind. Some years ago the teachers of a certain 
Sunday-school were making up a box of things, 
to send to a missionary station in India. The 
scholars of the school were invited to bring 
anything they had to give, and put it in the 
box. One poor little girl, in the school, was 
very anxious to send something in the box. 
But all she had in the world to give was a sin- 
gle penny. She resolved to give this. She 
bought a tract with that penny, and gave the 
tract to her teacher to put in the box. It was 
put in. The box went across the great ocean. 
It was opened at a missionary station at Burd- 
wan in India. That tract fell into the hands 
of the son of one of the chiefs of Burdwan. The 
reading of that tract led him to become a Chris- 



THE BLESSEDXESS OF GIVING. 251 

tian. Then be was very anxious that others 
should become Christians too. He began to 
talk about Jesus in his family. He distributed 
tracts, and Christian books round about in the 
neighborhood where he lived. Being a young 
man of great influence, his example had a won- 
derful effect. In one jew fifteen hundred of 
the natives, of that part of the country, gave up 
their idolatry, were baptized, and became Chris- 
tians, through the labors of that young prince. 
And all this good resulted from the one tract 
bought by that poor little girl's single penny. 
Now think of all this good being done by one 
penny, and then think of all Lord Braco's gold 
and silver lying useless, and you must admit 
that it is more blessed to give than to receive 
or keep. It is more usefvl. 

But the third, reason ivhy it is more blessed 
to give than to receive is that there is more hap- 
pixess in it. 

One of the great secrets of being happy is to 
be doing good, or trying to make others happy. 
But to do this we must learn to be givers. Here 
I have a nice story to show you how true this is. 



252 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

Little Robert Manly was only about five 
years old. Yet young as he was he liked to 
have his own way. He thought a great deal 
about pleasing himself, and this is not at all 
the best way to be happy. A very poor family 
lived down the lane behind his mother's house. 
The father of this family was a drunkard. He 
was very cruel to his wife and children, and 
often beat them. 

One day this poor woman came to Robert's 
mother to beg a little new milk for her sick 
baby. Mrs. Manly had none to spare, except 
what she had saved for Robert's supper : " But 
I will give the poor creature this," she said, 
" for Robert can do without his milk for once." 
At supper time his mother told him how she 
had given away his milk for the poor sick baby. 
Robert didn't like this at all. He pouted and 
cried. He refused to eat his bread and butter, 
and kept muttering about the milk being his, 
and nobody else having any right to it. 

His mother was very sorry to see him so 
selfish, and she lifted up her heart, in prayer, to 
God that He would take away these bad feel- 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 253 

ings, and make him a better boy. The next 
day she took Robert with her to see this poor 
family, thinking that the sight of their misery 
would do him good. So they went down the 
lane to visit the drunkard's family. How cold 
and forlorn everything seemed there ! It made 
little Robert shiver to look round on that cheer- 
less home. The poor woman thanked Mrs. 
Manly, over and over again, for the new milk. 
" It kept the baby still all night," she said : 
" her father didn't beat her — for he beats her 
when he comes home drunk, and finds her 
crying. Poor thing ! she can't help it : 
she's hungry and wants something nourish- 
ing." 

" But I don't know as I can spare you any 
more," said Robert's mother ; " I want to, very 
much, but" — and she stopped. 

" Oh !" said the woman, " I know, I can't 
expect it every night, you're very good, and 
I'm very much obliged to you." 

" Is there anything else I could do for you ?" 
asked Robert's mother. 

" Nothing, thank you, now ; the most, is a 

22 



254 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

drop of new milk," she said, sighing, and kiss- 
ing her poor sick baby. 

As they walked home, Eobert didn't say a 
word, though he was, generally, very talkative. 
He seemed to be thinking earnestly abont some- 
thing. His mother said nothing, but prayed in 
her heart that God would teach him to feel and 
do what was right. At supper time, Robert's 
bowl of milk was set by his plate. He did not 
come to the table, but sat looking in the fire. 

" Come, Robert," said his father. 

He obeyed, but gently shoved his bowl of 
milk, on one side. In a few minutes he went 
to his mother's side and said, in a whisper : 

" Mother, may I take my milk to the poor, 
sick baby?" 

" Yes, my son," said his mother. 

He weut into the kitchen, and presently, 
Mary, the girl, came in and carried out the milk. 
Nothing was seen of the little fellow for some 
time. By and by he came bounding into the 
room, covered over with snow-flakes, and shout- 
ing cheerfully : 

" Mother, the baby's got the milk ; Mary and 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 255 

I took it to her. Now she'll sleep ; won't she ? 
Her mother said, ' God bless you, my child !' 
that was to me ; and, mother, my milk tastes 
very good to-night (smacking his lips) ; I mean 
my no milk" 

Yes, little Robert was proving the truth of 
our Saviour's words, " It is more blessed to 
give than to receive," when he smacked his 
lips, and said the " no milk" was better than the 
milk. It made him happier to give his milk to 
the poor sick baby, than to drink it himself. 

I want to give you one other illustration of 
this part of our sermon before I close. 

There lived an old man, in Germany, named 
Gerard Steiner. He had three sons : Adol- 
phus, the oldest ; Henry, the second ; and lit- 
tle Bernard, the youngest. One day he called 
the boys to him. He had an open letter in his 
hand, which he had just been reading. 

" My dear boys," said their father, " this let- 
ter is from your kind Uncle Bernard. He is 
very ill. The doctor says he cannot live, and 
he has sent for me to come and see him before 
he dies. I shall probably be away all the sum- 



256 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

mer. I hope you will be good boys while I am 
gone ; and here is a message for you from your 
dying uncle. Listen to it attentively ; he says : 
' Give a handful of grain to each of the three 
boys, when you leave them to come to me, and 
tell them to do with it what they think best, 
during your absence ; and when you return you 
will decide who has made the best use of it, 
and will reward that one according as I shall 
tell you. 7 " 

Mr. Steiner then gave each boy his handful 
of grain, and started on his journey. 

He was absent a long while. One day, at 
the close of summer, little Bernard stood watch- 
ing at the open window. Presently a carriage 
drove up to the door, and an elderly gentleman 
got out, holding a small tin box in his hand. 

" Oh, father's come ! father's come !" cried 
Bernard. The boys all rushed out and threw 
their arms round their father's neck, and told 
him how glad they were to see him again, after 
his long absence. 

" And I am very glad to see you all looking 
so well, my dear boys," said Mr. Steiner, as 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 257 

lie stooped down and gave each of them a 
kiss. 

Then they all entered the house. Mr. Steiner 
now placed the tin box, that he held in his hand, 
upon the table ; and taking a small key from 
his pocket, opened it, and took out a piece of 
parchment, which contained the will of his 
brother, Bernard Steiner. 

The boys looked on sorrowfully, while their 
father, with trembling hand, unfolded the will, 
and said : 

" I had the sad pleasure, my dear boys, of 
being with your dear uncle when he died. He 
died a peaceful, happy death. In this, his last 
will, he leaves all his property to the one of 
you that I shall decide has made the best use 
of the handful of grain that I gave each of you 
before I left home. Now let me hear, my chil- 
dren, what you have done with it." 

"I," said Adolphus, "have saved mine. I 
put it in a small wooden box, in a dry place, 
and it's just as fresh as the day that you gave 
it me." 

" My son," said his father, in a stern voice ; 
22* 



258 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

" you have laid by the grain, and what has it 
profited, either yourself, or any one else? 
Nothing. So it is with money ; laid up, or 
kept, it does no good to any. That is not the 
right use to make of it. 

" Well, Henry," said Mr. Steiner, turning to 
his next son, " what have you done with your 
handful of grain ?" 

" I ground it to flour, father, and had a nice 
sweet cake made of it, which I have eaten." 

" Foolish boy !" he exclaimed ; " and now it's 
all gone. You used it for yourself alone, that 
was not the best use to make of the grain ; 
neither is it the best use to make of money." 
And then, drawing his youngest son to him, he 
said, " What use has my little Bernard made 
of the handful of grain I gave him ?" 

The child smiled, and clasping his father's 
hand, said, " Come with me, father, and I will 
show you." 

They all followed the boy as he led the way 
towards a field, belonging to his father, at some 
distance from the house. 

" See, father," exclaimed the happy child, "I 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 259 

sowed my handful of grain in the earth, and 
there you see what has become of it ;" — pointing 
"with delight, to a corner of the field, where the 
tall, slender grain was growing, laden with its 
golden ears, and waving and rustling beneath 
the gentle breeze. 

The father smiled, and resting his hand upon 
the head of Bernard, said : 

" You have done well, my son. You sowed 
the grain in the earth, and it has yielded a 
bountiful harvest. This was the best use to make 
of it. Your uncle's fortune belongs to you. 
Use it as wisely as you have the handful of 
grain. Don't lay it up, as Adolphus did. Don't 
use it for yourself alone, as Henry did. Use it 
freely for others ; for the poor, for the widow, 
and the fatherless, for the little ones of Christ, 
and He will remember it, and reward you 
abundantly, and you will find how true His 
own words were, when He said, ' It is more 
blessed to give than to receive.' " 

There is more happiness in giving than in 
receiving. Little Robert felt this when he gave 
his milk to the sick baby ; and little Bernard 



260 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

felt the same, when he sowed his handful of 
grain in the earth, instead of keeping it, or 
eating it, as his brothers had done. 

Now, we have had three reasons why it is 
more blessed to give than to receive. The 
first reason is, that it is more like God. The 
second is, that it is 'more useful. The third 
is, that there is more happiness in it. 

And now, my dear young friends, I wonder 
how many of you really believe that these 
words of Jesus are true? If you do believe 
them, you will show it by learning to give. If 
you have money to give, give that. If you 
have no money, then you can set up to be giv- 
ers without any money. You can give kind 
words. You can give kind actions. Jesus 
says, if you give " a cup of cold water to one of 
the least of His people, you shall in no wise 
lose your reward." Form the habit of giving, 
while you are young, and it will be a great 
blessing to you all your life. 

But there is one thing, especially, that God 
wants you to give to Him. It is something 
which each of you has, and each of you can 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 261 

give, if you will. God says, " Give me thine 
heart." " It is more blessed to give" this to 
God, than to receive anything, or everything 
the world contains. Who will make this gift, 
to-day ? 



IX. 

TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 



; Gather up the fragments . . . that nothing be lost." 

John vi. 12. 



IX. 

"Gather up the fragments . . . that nothing be lost." 

John vi. 12. 

When Jesus spoke these words, He had 
just been performing a great miracle. A vast 
congregation, of five thousand people, had 
collected around Him. Some of them had 
come from a great distance. They had heard 
him preach — but were unwilling to go home as 
soon as the preaching is over. They wanted 
to stay and hear him again. They had seen 
him work miracles. He had healed the sick, 
opened the eyes of the blind, and made the 
lame whole, and they were anxious to stay, and 
see more of his wonderful works performed. 
But they were away from their homes, tired 
and hungry. Jesus felt a pity for them. He 
resolved to give them something to eat. But 
when He inquired what provisions the disciples 
had, He found that five small loaves, a little 
bigger than rolls, and two little fishes, were all 
23 (265) 



266 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

they had, to spread before that multitude. 
These wouldn't have made a crumb apiece for 
one-quarter of that congregation. But still, 
Jesus told his disciples to make the people sit 
down, and get ready for dinner, just as if He 
had a cart load of provisions. When they 
were all seated, Jesus asked a blessing on the 
food before them. Then He took one of the 
loaves, and began to break it up ; but, as fast 
as He broke off a piece, the loaf from which He 
broke it, would instantly grow out again as big 
as it was before. And it was the same with 
the fishes. The loaves and fishes grew faster 
than ever loaves or fishes grew before. And 
so Jesus kept on breaking up the *bread and 
fish into pieces, and the bread and fish kept on 
increasing till all those five thousand hungry 
people had eaten just as much as they could 
eat. Then there were great piles of food lying 
all about. And Jesus said unto the disciples, 
" Gather up the fragments . . . that nothing be 
lost. Therefore, they gathered them together, 
and filled twelve baskets with the fragments." 
How very wonderful this was ! Why, I sup- 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 267 

pose, that one of those twelve baskets would 
have held all the loaves and fishes put together, 
before they began to eat of them. And yet, 
after five thousand people had eaten, there was 
twelve times more food left than there was 
before they began. This was surprising in- 
deed ! And how strange it was, that, in the 
midst of such abundance, Jesus should have 
been so particular in taking care of what was 
left ! Why, we should have thought that if He 
could get it so easily, He wouln't have taken any 
notice of the pieces left. But He did. If every 
piece of bread or fish had been a lump of gold, 
he couldn't have been more careful of them. 
This is very singular. What did Jesus do it 
for ? He did it to teach us this important les- 
son — never to waste anything. When God 
made the great ocean, we are told, that "He 
measured the waters in the hollow of his hand," 
so as to have neither too little, nor too much, 
but just the quantity He wanted. When He 
made the mountains and hills, " He weighed the 
mountains in scales and the hills in a balance," 
so as to have them just as large and as heavy as 



268 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

He desired them to be. God never wastes 
anything in the works that He performs. Sup- 
pose you set a pan of water out in the air, 
where the sun can shine upon it in summer 
time. Now watch it. The sun makes the 
water warm ; then you see a sort of steam 
rising up from the surface of the water. The 
sun is turning the water into vapor. It keeps 
on doing this. The water in the pan becomes 
less and less, till at last it is all gone. Per- 
haps you think that water is wasted ; but it 
isn't. It has only changed its form. It has 
all turned to vapor. The vapor floats away in 
the clouds, and helps to make rain, and pres- 
ently every drop of it will come down to earth 
again in the shape of rain. Not a single drop 
of all the water you had in your pan will be 
lost. There is no waste in anything that God 
does. And when Jesus, after performing this 
wonderful miracle, said, " Gather up the frag- 
ments . . . that nothing be lost," he intended to 
teach us not to be wasters of anything. Our 
sermon, this afternoon, will be about gathering 
up the fragments. Jesus spoke these words to 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 269 

the disciples about gathering up the fragments 
of bread aud fish, of which the people had been 
eating. But there are other kinds of fragments 
to be gathered. I wish now to speak of four 
different sorts of fragments which it is very im- 
portant for us to learn how to gather. 

In the first place, there are fragments of 
time that tee should gather up. 

Time is the most precious of all things. It 
is more valuable than gold or silver. When 
Elizabeth, the celebrated queen of England, 
was on her death-bed, she exclaimed. " My 
kingdom for an hour of time !'" But all the 
wealth and honors of her kingdom could not 
purchase for her the time she wanted. Queen 
Elizabeth had not wasted her time. Few per- 
sons had ever been more diligent in improving 
time than she had been. She was very fond of 
study. She used to rise early and spend every 
moment she could spare in reading and study- 
ing. She understood Greek and Latin per- 
fectly. She could speak and write in five dif- 
ferent languages ; and one of the most learned 
men of her reign said, " that she knew as much 
23* 



270 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

as any man then living." I suppose that what 
the dying queen wanted time so much for, was to 
get ready for heaven. She had been very dili- 
gent in improving her time so far as reading and 
study was concerned, and in attending to the af- 
fairs of her kingdom, for she was one of the best 
monarchs that England ever had ; but while 
doing this she had not taken care of her soul, 
as she ought to have done. And when she 
came to die, she wanted more time to repent of 
her sins, and pray to God for His pardoning 
mercy. The right way to improve time is, to 
take care of our souls first / to be sure and 
have them safe, by repenting and believing in 
Jesus • and then to gather up the fragments of 
time for other purposes. 

A gentleman was once visiting the United 
States Mint. One room that he went into was 
called the gold room. Here the gold used in 
that establishment, for making money, was 
taken out and prepared for being melted. He 
noticed that the floor of this room was covered 
all over by a sort of grating, made of strips of 
wood, with openings between them. He asked 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 271 

what it was for. He was told, that it was 
intended to prevent any of the visitors from 
carrying away with the dust of their feet, any 
of the very fine particles of gold which would 
fly off while they were filing the rough edges 
of the bars of gold. Every now and then they 
would take up this wooden grating from the 
floor and carefully sweep up the dust which 
collected there. Thus they gathered up these 
little fragments of gold, and from the sweepings 
of the floor they saved thousands of dollars in 
a year. 

But time is worth more than gold ; and if 
we were only as careful in gathering up its 
fragments, as we should be, it is surprising how 
much of it we should be able to save. 

Nearly ail the persons who have become 
great, and distinguished in the world, have 
early formed the habit of gathering up the 
fragments of their time, and never letting them 
slip idly by. If you read the lives of such men 
as Demosthenes, the famous orator, of Julius 
Cassar, Sir Isaac Newton, Franklin, Washing- 
ton, Napoleon, you will find that they all had 



272 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

learned and practiced well the lesson we are 
considering. They were very industrious. 
They gathered up the fragments of their time. 
They were no idlers. They rose early in the 
^morning. They were busy all the day long. 
They used up all the odds and ends of their 
time. And you will never be able to do 
much, either for yourselves or others, unless 
you learn to gather up these fragments. 

Some years ago, a lean, awkward-looking 
boy, dressed in coarse, patched clothes, came, 
one morning, to the house in which the presi- 
dent of one of our Eastern colleges lived. He 
knocked at the door, and asked to see the 
president. The servant-girl looked at his poor, 
shabby clothes, and thinking that he looked 
more like a beggar, than anything else, told 
him to go round to the kitchen. The boy did 
as he was told, and soon appeared at the back 
door. 

' I suppose you want some breakfast," said 
the servant-girl, " and I can give you that with- 
out troubling the doctor." 

" Thank you," said the boy, " I have no ob- 



TBIE AND KNOWLEDGE. 273 

jection to the piece of bread ; but I want very 
much to see the president." 

" Indeed," said the girl, looking at the boy's 
patched trowsers, " I suppose you want some 
old clothes. I guess the doctor lias none to 
spare. He gives away a sight." And then, 
without minding the boy's request, she went 
about her work. 

The boy ate the bread with a keen relish, 
for he vas very hungry. When he had finished 
it, he said, " Can I see the president now ?" 

' : Well, he's in the library ; if he must be 
disturbed, he must, but he does like to be alone 
sometimes," said the girl in a peevish tone. 
She seemed to think it very foolish to admit 
such an ill-looking fellow into her master's 
presence ; but, wiping her hands, she told him 
to follow her. Opening the door of the 
library, she said : 

"Here, sir, is somebody who is dreadfully 
anxious to see you, and so I let him in." 

The president looked towards the boy, and 
said : 

" Well, my lad, what is it you want?" 



274 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

" Please, sir," said the boy, making an awk- 
ward sort of a bow, " I want to know if I can 
enter college ?" 

" I should think not," said the learned 
doctor, supposing from the boy's appearance 
that he was an ignorant fellow, who didn't 
know what he was talking about. He then 
asked him some questions in the simple rules 
of arithmetic, which he answered correctly. 
He then passed on to fractions and decimals, 
and to algebra ; but all his questions were 
readily answered. 

" Very good," said the president. " Do you 
know anything of Latin, my man ?" asked he, 
handing the boy a copy of Virgil. 

" A little, sir," said the boy ; and taking the 
book, he opened it, and read off a dozen or 
twenty lines very fluently, and translated them 
into English, with great ease. 

''Indeed!" said the doctor, as he looked 
at the boy, with great surprise. 

" Have you read any Greek, young man ?" 
he asked, as he handed a copy of Homer. 

" A little, sir," said the boy again. He then 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 275 

took the book, and read and translated the 
Greek as easily as he had done the Latin. 

" Upon my word," said he, " that is well 
done." And looking at the youth over his 
spectacles, he asked : " Why, my boy, when did 
you pick up all this learning ?" 

Now, mark the boy's answer : " In my sjpave 
moments, sir." 

Ah ! jes, this boy had learned to gather up 
the fragments of time. He was a poor boy, 
who had to work hard on a farm, for his living ; 
and yet, by improving his spare moments, — 
the half hour or quarter, he could save at dinner 
time, and by making use of the long winter 
evenings, after the day's work was done, he 
had prepared himself to enter college. While 
others were letting their spare moments slip 
idly away ; while they were lounging about, 
doing nothing, or, worse than nothing, learning 
to smoke and drink, and to play cards, he was 
gathering up the fragments of his time, that 
nothing should be lost. And, if we could fol- 
low that young man through the rest of his 
life, we should expect to find him making his 



276 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

mark, wherever he went, and rising to a high 
station among the wise and good men of the 
land. 

A celebrated lawyer, in France, wrote a 
large and valuable law-book, by taking the 
time he used to have to wait every day for his 
dinner to be ready. 

There was a lady in France, whose name 
was Madame de Genlis. She was the teacher 
of the princess, in the royal family. Her pupil 
would often keep her waiting twenty minutes, 
or half an hour, when she came to give her her 
lesson. This was too much to lose. So she 
always carried a pencil and some paper with 
her, and, in the course of several years, she 
wrote two or three interesting volumes, by just 
gathering up those fragments of time, while 
she was waiting for her pupil. 

There is a gentleman, now occupying a 
prominent position in England, who learned 
Latin and Greek while he was carrying mes- 
sages as an errand-boy in the streets of Man- 
chester. 

Almost everybody has heard of Elihu Bur- 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 277 

ritt, " the learned blacksmith." He is some- 
times called " the Buck-eye blacksmith," be- 
cause he comes from Ohio, the Buck-eye State. 
He has gone all over our country lecturing on 
different subjects. He was brought up as a 
blacksmith. And yet, while blowing the bel- 
lows, and wielding the hammer, he has con- 
trived, by gathering the fragments of time, to 
learn forty different languages ! How won- 
derful this is ! And what he has done, others 
may do, if they will but follow his example. 
Sometimes we hear business men say, " Time is 
money." But it is more than this. It can do 
for us what money never can. If rightly im- 
proved, it will make us learned, and wise, and 
good. 

My dear young friends, let me entreat you to 
set a high value on your " odd moments." Don't 
waste them. Begin now, while you are young, 
to make a good use of them. They are more 
precious than gold dust, or diamond dust. Turn 
them all to good account. One of the Roman 
Emperors used always to look back at night 
and see if his time had been well spent. If it 
24 



278 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

had not, he would exclaim, " I have lost a day." 
Do not lose your hours or days in idleness, 
when, by reading, or study, or labor, they can 
be made so profitable. Form the habit now of 
having all your hours usefully employed. It 
will^be better for you than thousands of gold 
and silver. 

Gather up the fragments of time. 

But. secondly, gather up the fragments of 

KNOWLEDGE. 

Knowledge is very useful. Almost every- 
thing that we learn will be of use to us some 
time or other. There is, in most houses, a little 
room called the store room, or lumber room. It 
is the place in which things are put that are 
not wanted at present. A strange collection 
of things you see when you go into that room. 
On the wall, at one side, hangs the tool board. 
Under this board stands the nail box. Near 
the nail box is another box which contains a 
great variety of things. There are keys and 
old locks, and bolts, hinges and screws, hooks 
and staples, pieces of iron and brass. In one 
corner of the room are a number of old wooden 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 279 

boxes. On one of the shelves is a lot of empty 
bottles. Next to the bottles is a basket con- 
taining corks and pieces of leather. Behind 
the door are some boards, and pieces of wood 
of different sizes. In one corner are some old 
shoes. In another is a broken table, and the 
remains of two or three old chairs. A won- 
derful variety of things may be found in that 
store room. It is not very attractive to look 
at, but it is very useful. When anything gets 
out of order about the house, and some lock, or 
bolt, or hinge, wants fixing ; when a piece of 
board is needed in the kitchen, or a spike or a 
hook in the yard, — then the store room is the 
place to go to. Whatever it is you want, you 
are almost sure to find it there. It is very im- 
portant to have a store room in a house. Yes, 
and it is very important to keep that room well 
filled with all sorts of things. Whatever you 
put in there will come into use some time or 
other. Some of the things there may remain 
for years before you want them, but at last they 
will be just the things you want. 

Now, your mind may be compared to a house. 



280 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

And your memory is the store room. What- 
ever you read, or learn, or, in other words, all 
the knowledge you get, is stowed away in your 
memory, just like the things you put by in your 
store room. Every possible thing that you 
learn will be of use some time or other. Read 
all the good and useful books you can : get all 
the knowledge in your power, no matter what 
it's about, for some time in your life you will 
find it of service to you. You will have a full 
store room with you wherever you go ; and 
perhaps, when you least expect it, something 
that you learned years before will turn out to 
be the greatest help and comfort to you. Let 
me show you how this sometimes happens. 

There is John Williams, the good missionary 
to the islands of the Pacific, — " the Martyr Mis- 
sionary of Erromanga." When he was a boy, 
in England, he was engaged as a clerk in a 
hardware store, or as our English friends would 
term it, in an iron-monger's shop. His duty 
was to attend in the store, to sell goods and 
fill up orders. Back of the store, and connect- 
ed with it, was a large blacksmith shop, where 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 281 

a number of men were employed in manufactur- 
ing different articles that were made of iron. 
Mr. Williams was not expected to work in this 
shop. But he was determined to learn every- 
thing about the business that he could. He 
had resolved to gather up all the fragments of 
knowledge in his power. And so, whenever he 
had half an hour or so to spare, at dinner time, 
or at the close of the day. he would go into the 
smiths' shop and get the men to show him how 
they did their work, and made the different ar- 
ticles of their trade. He kept on doing this 
till he had learned all about the business, and 
got to be one of the best workmen in the place : 
so that when there was any work to be done 
requiring particular skill and care, Mr. Wil- 
liams was sure to be called upon to do it. Thus 
he gathered up the fragments there. 

Now look at him again. He is on shipboard, 
going out to his labors in the South seas. Here 
he tries to learn all he can, from the sailors, 
about the way in which a vessel is made, and 
rigged, and worked. Every day he is busy 
gathering up fragments of knowledge, and put- 
24* i 



282 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

ting them away in the store room of his mem- 
ory. And see now what use he made of it all. 
Years have passed away. The people in the 
island of Raratonga, where he lives, have given 
up their idols and become Christians. The 
good missionary is anxious now to go to other 
islands, and tell the poor blind heathen there 
too about Jesus. But he has nothing to carry 
him there. What can he do ? He thinks and 
prays over it awhile, and then resolves that he 
will try and build a vessel himself. What ! in 
that far off island, with no timber and no proper 
tools, and nobody to help him, attempt to build 
a vessel ! Yes, that is what he tried to do ; 
and that is what he did do. He never rested 
till the little schooner called the " Messenger 
of Peace" was built and launched, and he was 
sailing away in her to tell of Jesus and His sal- 
vation to the heathen. You see now how use- 
ful those gathered fragments were to him ! 
Unless the store room of his memory had been 
filled with the knowledge of the way to work 
in iron which he had learned in England, and 
with the knowledge of how vessels were made 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 283 

and rigged, which he learned on ship-board, he 
never would have been able, when he became 
a missionary, to make a vessel for himself. 

Every little bit and scrap of knowledge, that 
you can pick up, you should put away in the 
store room of memory. It will be sure to be 
of use to you some time or other. Let me tell 
you a story to prove this. 

You know that the church of St. Peter's, at 
Rome, is one of the most splendid buildings in 
the world. There is a large open court in front 
of it, which is filled with beautiful monuments 
and statuary. One of these is a beautiful obe- 
lisk made of Egyptian marble. An obelisk is 
a column of marble, or other stone, made out of 
one block, and gradually tapering off from one 
end to the other, so that the base on which it 
stands is broader than the top. The square 
tapering columns of marble that you see on 
tombstones are obelisks. But the one I am 
speaking of in front of St. Peter's at Rome is 
supposed to be the largest in the world, It is 
seventy-two feet high, twelve feet square at the 
base, and eight feet square at the top. It is 



284 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

said to be three thousand years old. It was 
found among the ruins of an old building in 
Rome, called the Circus of Nero. There it 
had lain buried for ages. But one of the popes 
determined to have it dug out, and cleaned, and 
set up among the other beautiful monuments in 
in front of St. Peter's. He ordered this to be 
done. It was a very difficult job to move it. 
The obelisk was supposed to weigh about four 
hundred and seventy tons. Finally it was re- 
moved to the place appointed for it. There, a 
pedestal, of solid stone, thirty feet high, was 
built for it to stand on. But to get that heavy 
mass on the top of the pedestal was no easy 
matter. The Pope appointed a skillful architect 
to attend to it. He made all the necessary 
preparations. He got all the machinery ready, 
with the windlasses, blocks, ropes, tackling, and 
so forth. Then the Pope fixed a day for setting 
up the obelisk. It was a grand holiday in Rome. 
All the people turned out to witness the sight. 
The Pope's soldiers were there to keep the 
peace. The better to preserve order, the Pope 
issued a proclamation, that, while the work was 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 285 

going on, no one, except those employed in the 
work, should speak a loud word, on pain of 
being put in prison. At last the arrangements 
are all made, and the order is given to hoist. 
The wheels go round — the ropes move — the 
blocks creak — and the obelisk begins to rise. 
The people watch it with great excitement, but 
in breathless silence. Higher and higher it 
goes. Everything seems to work well ; and 
still it rises till it is within five or six inches 
of the place appointed for it, when suddenly it 
stops. What is the matter ? The ropes have 
stretched so much that the blocks have come 
together too soon. They can't get it any higher. 
There it hangs dangling in the air. The peo- 
ple are disappointed. The architect is dread- 
fully excited. He is just on the point of order- 
ing it to be lowered to the ground again, when 
an English sailor, in the crowd, who had been 
watching the operation, sang out, at the top of 
his voice, " Wet the ropes — wet the ropes !" 
He had learned at sea that when new ropes are 
wet they always shrink, and become shorter. 
This scrap of knowledge was very useful now. 



286 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

The architect saw that this would do it. The 
ropes were wet. They shrunk at once more 
than was needed, and the obelisk was landed 
in the place intended for it. The Pope's sol- 
diers took up the sailor and put him in prison. 
The next day he was brought up for trial, when 
the Pope condemned him to receive a large 
sum of money for the fragment of knowledge 
which he had gathered up, and which was so 
very useful in that time of need. Jack took 
the punishment without a word of complaint. 

I want now to give you one more illustration 
to show the importance of gathering up the 
fragments of Scriptural knowledge, and that is 
all I shall say on this point of the subject. 

There was a gentleman in New York who 
was an infidel. He never went to church. He 
had no Bible in the house. He did not believe 
that Jesus was a divine being, or that He died 
to save sinners. Yet, when this gentleman was 
a child he had a pious mother. She made him 
read the Bible. She filled the store room of 
his memory with its precious promises. We 
shall see presently of what use these were to 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 287 

him. This gentleman was married. His wife 
was not a Christian. They had one child, a 
bright, intelligent little boy. The nurse of this 
child was a pious woman. She used often to 
talk to him about Jesus. She taught him the 
beautiful hymn — 

" There is a happy land, 
Far, far away," etc. 

His parents, though they were not Chris- 
tians, taught him to say his prayers at night, 
and often he would ask them questions about 
God and " the happy land," which they found it 
very hard to answer. 

One evening, the little fellow was lying on 
the bed partly undressed ; his father and mother 
were seated by the fire. Tommy, as he was 
called, had not been a good boy that day. His 
mother had been telling his father what he had 
done, and how she had to punish him for it. 
Ail was quiet for awhile, when suddenly the 
child broke out in a loud sobbing and crying 
which surprised his parents. His father went 
to him and asked what was the matter. 



288 THE SAFE C0MR4SS. 

" I don't want it, father — I don't want it 
there," said he. 

" What is it, my child, what is it ?" he asked. 

" Why, father, I don't want the angels to 
write down in God's book all the bad things I 
have done to-day. I don't want it there. I 
wish it could be wiped out." Then he cried 
again bitterly, and his father was almost ready 
to cry with him. What could he do ? I said 
his father was an infidel. But now he put aside 
his infidelity. He remembered the truths of 
the Bible which his mother had taught him 
when lie was a child. He turned to them now, 
and tried to comfort his distressed child with 
them. 

" Don't cry, my dear child," he said, " you 
can have it all wiped out in a minute if you 
want." 

" How, father, how ?" asked Tommy, eagerly. 

" Why, get down on your knees, and ask God 
for Christ's sake to wipe it out, and he will do 
it." 

He didn't have to speak twice. In an instant 
Tommy jumped out of bed, and kneeled down 



TIME AND KNOWLEDGE. 289 

by the bedside. He put up his little hands and 
was just about beginning — when he looked up 
and said, 

" Oh, father, won't you come and help me ?" 

This was a hard thing to ask. His father 

had never really prayed in his life. But he 

saw the great distress of his child, and how 

could he refuse ? So the proud infidel man got 

down on his knees by the side of his dear boy, 

and asked God to wipe away his sins. Then 

they got up, and Tommy went into bed again. 

In a few moments he looked up and said, — 

" Father, are you sure it's all wiped out?" 

What a question was this to ask an infidel ! 

But he felt that he must give up his infidelity, 

as he answered, — " Why, yes, the Bible says, 

if you ask God from your heart for Christ's 

sake to do it, and if you are really sorry for 

what you have done, it shall be all blotted out." 

A sweet smile passed over the face of the 

child as he laid his little head upon the pillow. 

But presently he sat up again in bed and said, 

" Father, what did the angel wipe it out with ? 

— with a sponge ?" 

25 



290 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

This was another question that almost stag- 
gered his father. He had been in the habit of 
saying that it was not necessary for Christ to 
shed His blood that men might be pardoned. 
But now he felt in a moment that it was neces- 
sary. He could not answer his child's question, 
unless this was true. So he said — 

" No, my child, not with a sponge, but with 
the blood of Christ. The Bible says, 'The 
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. 7 " 

Then Tommy was satisfied, and soon fell 
asleep. From that hour his father gave up his 
infidelity, and became a Christian. Here, you 
see how useful, to him, were those gathered frag- 
ments of Bible knowledge which he had stowed 
away in his memory. 

Now, my dear young friends, remember about 
these two kinds of fragments you are to gather. 
Begin at once to gather up the fragments of 
time, and the fragments of knowledge. Form 
the habit now while you are young, and it will 
be of more value to you than you can tell. 



X. 

Mattering tte fragments: 

MONEY AND USEFULNESS 



Gather up the fragments . . . that nothing be lost." 

John vi. 12. 



X. 



"Gather up the fragments . . . that nothing be lost."— John 
vi. 12. 

In our last sermon on this text we spoke 
about two kinds of fragments that ought to be 
gathered up. These were fragments of time, 
and fragments of knowledge. 

The third kind of fragments to he gathered is 
the fragments of money. 

There are two reasons why we should gather 
up the fragments of money. We ought to do it 
for our own good ; and toe ought to do it for 
the good of others. 

We should gather up the fragments of money 
for our own benefit. Dollars are made up of 
cents ; and Benjamin Franklin used to say, " if 
we take care of the cents the dollars will take 
care of themselves." 

A boy worked hard, all day, for a quarter of 
a dollar. With that quarter he bought some 
apples. He went along the streets and sold the 

25* (293) 



294 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

apples for a dollar. With the dollar he bought 
a sheep. The sheep brought him a lamb. For 
the fleece of the lamb he got another dollar. 
With this dollar he bought another sheep. The 
next spring he had two sheep, two lambs, and 
a yearling sheep. He sold the three fleeces for 
three dollars, and bought three more sheep. 
Now he had six sheep, and a fair prospect of 
doing well with them. He worked hard, and 
gathered up the fragments of money, so as to 
be able to get hay, and corn, and oats, and pas- 
ture for his sheep. He took the greatest care 
of his lambs and sheep, and soon he had a good- 
sized flock. Their wool enabled him to buy a 
pasture for them. By the time he was twenty- 
one years old he had a good start in business ; 
and after a few years he became a wealthy 
farmer. Sometimes when he was showing per- 
sons about over his splendid, well-stocked farm, 
worth many thousands of dollars, he used to 
say that he got it all for a quarter of a dollar* 
Then he would tell them of the time when he 
worked all day for a quarter, and began to 
trade with that. That quarter was the foun- 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 295 

dation of his fortune. He learned to gather up 
the fragments of money for his own benefit. 

There is a young man in Massachusetts now 
who is doing a flourishing business. He is a 
fine, intelligent man. Everybody who knows 
him respects and loves him. He began his life 
in a very similar way to the boy just spoken 
of ; only, instead of buying a sheep with the 
first money he had earned and saved, he bought 
a book with it. His parents were very poor. 
They taught him to be careful of his pennies, 
to gather up the fragments of money. He did 
not get much, but he took good care of what 
he did get. He saved up his pennies till he 
had fifty of them — the first half dollar he ever 
had. He laid out this money in buying a 
Bible — the Book of books. When he got this 
Bible he resolved to read it daily, and pray 
God for grace to help him to live according to 
its teachings. Thus, in taking his start in life, 
he planted himself on the Bible. While doing 
this he still went on gathering up the fragments. 
He was careful of the little money he received. 
As fast as he got money enough to do so, he 



296 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

bought other useful and instructive books. He 
read them over, in his leisure hours, with the 
greatest care and interest. He grew up to be 
a model young man. And now he is very rich, 
and carrying on a large business, and is one of 
the first men in the town in which he lives. 
But if he had spent the first half dollar he ever 
owned in drinking, or gambling, or going to 
the theatre, instead of buying a Bible, he might 
have been a miserable drunkard, without wealth, 
or character, or usefulness. He gathered the 
fragments of money for his own benefit. 

In looking over my scrap-book, the other day, 
to find something to illustrate this point, I met 
with an anecdote headed, " A Gold Watch in a 
Rag-Bag." On reading it over, I found it was 
just the thing for this part of the sermon, and 
so I must put it in here. 

A lady who lived near Bridgeport, in Con- 
necticut, was in the habit of putting out shirts 
to make, to a number of women, for a large 
clothing establishment in the neighborhood. In 
cutting these out there were a great many 
pieces left — little odds and ends, too small to 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 297 

be of use. The first thought was to toss them 
iuto the fire. But, " do," she said to herself, 
" 111 ' gather up the fragments' aud save them. 
Perhaps I may get euough, by aud by, to ex- 
chauge them with the tiumau for something or 
other that may be useful iu the kitcheu." So 
she gathered them up and put them away, and 
in a few weeks there was quite a pile of them. 

One day a neighbor came in, and on hearing 
what she was going to do with her scraps, he 
advised her to send them to a paper-mill which 
was not far off. " They will give you three or 
four cents a pound for them," said he, " and 
that is better than to exchange them with the 
tinman." 

She asked her husband's advice. To him a 
few rags seemed like a matter of no conse- 
quence. 

" Do just as you like," said he, laughingly. 
" You may have all the money you can make out 
of the rags." 

She took him at his word, and iD two or 
three months some half-dozen barrels of rags 
were sent to the paper-mill. To her surprise, 



298 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

she received in return for these a nice, new five 
dollar note. When this was handed to her, 
the first thought that came into her mind was 
to go out and buy some ornamental thing for 
the house. But after thinking over it a little 
while, she came to a different conclusion. She 
resolved still to "gather up the fragments." 

She said to herself, " No, I won't spend it. 
All my rag money shall go into the Saving 
Bank." 

And into the Saving Bank it went. Time 
rolled on. More rags were saved and sold. 
The money kept steadily increasing. 

One day a tempting opportunity presented 
itself of purchasing a fine gold watch. The 
price of the watch was forty dollars. 

"I will not ask my husband to take that 
much money out of his business," said the lady 
to herself. "Now is the time to make use of 
my rag money." 

The watch was purchase! — literally, with 
rags. It was truly a gold watch gotten out from 
a rag-bag ! 

But this was not the end of it. The money 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 299 

in the Saving Bank, which grew out of a bun- 
dle of rags, went on increasing for a number of 
years, after the gold watch had been bought, 
and now it amounts to over ticcnty-jive hundred 
dollars ! Only think of it ! 

"I am surprised to think how it has in- 
creased," said the lady one day to some of her 
friends. " A few cuttings and scraps laid aside, 
when I cut out shirts — a few dollars carried 
to the bank when I went into town — a little 
interest added on from time to time — a few 
fragments gathered up with care, this was all ; 
and yet it has grown into this snug little for- 
tune." 

Certainly this lady gathered up the fragments 
of money for her own benefit. 

But then we ought to gather them up too for 
the good of others. 

A little boy once attended a Missionary 
meeting, and was very much interested in the 
speeches that were made. \Yhen he got home 
he tried to think of something that he could do 
to help on the good cause. But he could think 
of nothing that was of any importance. He 



300 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

was very young, and he felt that he would have 
to live many years before he could expect to 
speak about the work, as he had heard the gen- 
tlemen do at that meeting. He was very poor, 
and all he had seemed worth nothing, as he 
thought of the gold and silver which others 
had to give. All the money he had in the 
world consisted of a solitary farthing which 
somebody had given him. It was a new, bright, 
beautiful little coin, but still it was only a far- 
thing — and what good could that do ? At last 
he resolved to send it to the minister whose 
speech had interested him most at the Mission- 
ary meeting. The minister had come from 
London, and the little boy thought he had bet- 
ter put the farthing in a letter, and send it to 
him by post. So he folded it up, nicely, in a 
piece of paper, and wrote a little letter with it, 
in this style : 

" Dear Sir, — I am but a very little boy, and 
am very poor. My father and mother can give 
me nothing to send to the Missionary Society ; 
I have only a farthing of my own. Still I want 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 301 

to give something, so I send this farthing to 
you." g. b. s. 

Away went the letter with its farthing, and 
great was the delight of the gentleman on get- 
ting it. He was just about setting out, on a 
visit to Scotland, to hold Missionary meetings 
in different places, so he took the farthing and 
the letter with him. Wherever he held a meet- 
ing he showed the farthing and read the letter. 
Everybody was pleased. The young people 
especially were stirred up by it to raise some 
money, and before the gentleman returned to 
London the little boy's solitary farthing had 
gained above forty pounds, or more than two 
hundred dollars. Here you see how that little 
boy's gathered fragment — a single farthing — 
was made to promote the good of others. 

Now let me tell you of another case in which 
the same thing was done by a little boy in a 
different way. 

" Mother, I've got a penny, may I go and 
spend it ?" asked little Freddy one day as he 
twirled the new, bright coin in his fingers. 
26 



302 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

" What do you wish to get with it, rny son ?" 
asked his mother. 

" Oh, I don't know," said he, casting his eyes 
down. " A stick of candy, or gum, or some- 
thing." 

" You know, Freddy," said his mother, " I 
don't like you to eat candy, or chew gum ; and 
there is nothing else you can get for a penny 
that you will care for at all five minutes after 
you get it. I do wish, my son, that your pen- 
nies did not trouble you so much." 

" Trouble me, mother ! Why, what do you 
mean ?" 

" I mean just what I say, dear ; for as soon 
as you get one you want to spend it. And as 
you can't do so without displeasing me, or doing 
yourself harm, I think they are more trouble 
than pleasure to you." 

" Oh dear !" said Freddy, throwing himself 
on the floor, and drawing a long sigh, " I don't 
know what to do, I'm sure I wish I covld 
spend my money somehow." 

" Freddy," said his mother, " did you ever 
think how much good your pennies might do, 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 303 

if you would only save them till you got a good 
many of them together, and then give them to 
some poor person, or buy a nice book to give 
to some poor child who has no books or schools 
as you have ?" 

" Why, mother, I never thought of that," said 
Freddy, brightening up. " I'll try to save my 
pennies after this, and see what good I can do 
with them.' 7 

Freddy ran into his own little room, and drop- 
ped his cent into a small box which stood on the 
table. After this he went on carefully gather- 
ing up the fragments. Whenever a penny was 
given to him he would add it to his treasure in 
the box. He told his mother, one day, that the 
pennies didn't trouble him any more, since he 
had found out what to do with them. He 
liked to get money and save it, that he might 
do good with it. 

One day, about two or three months after 
this, Freddy came home from school in a great 
hurry. He ran into the house, and, without 
stopping to speak to any one, rushed into his 
own room, seized his money-box, emptied it, 



304 . THE SAFE COMPASS. 

and was off again, before his mother had time 
to notice what he was doing. In about half an 
hour he came back again, looking very bright 
and happy. 

" Why, Freddy," said his mother, " what does 
all this mean? Why did you run into the 
house and fly out again without stopping to 
speak to any one ?" 

" Oh, mother, please excuse me. I was in 
such a hurry I forgot all about it. I wanted 
my pennies to buy a new slate for little Sally 
Brown. She fell down and broke hers, just as 
she was coming out of the school-room. You 
know the people she lives with don't love her, 
and would have whipped her if she had carried 
home the broken one. So I told her not to 
cry, but walk slowly on, and I would get her a 
new one in a few minutes. I was in such a 
dreadful hurry because her mistress would scold 
her if she wasn't home at the usual time. I am 
so glad, mother, that I followed your advice 
and saved my pennies. I'm sure it was nicer 
to help poor Sally in her trouble than to have 
had all the candy in town to eat." 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 305 

Freddy remembered his mother's goo J ad- 
vice afterwards. He kept on gathering up the 
fragments, and so often had it in his power to 
do good to others in a way that made him feel 
truly happy. We should " gather up the frag- 
ments" of money for our own good, said for the 
good of others. 

But there is still another kind of fragments 
that we should gather up • it is the fourth and 
last hind. I refer to the fragments of use- 
fulness. I mean, "by this, that we should be 
careful to improve all the opportunities for 
usefulness that come in our way. There are a 
great many different ways in which we may be 
useful, if we only try to improve them, by gath- 
ering up these fragments as we find them lying 
in our path. 

We may he useful by our example, and we 
should improve every opportunity of doing 
good in this way. I was reading, lately, of a 
little boy, who ''gathered up the fragments" 
about him, in this way, and was the means of 
doing good. The little fellow was only about 
ten or eleven years old. He was the son of a 
26* 



306 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

clergyman. His father had got a situation for 
him, on board one of those ships where boys 
are put, in order to be trained and educated 
for officers in the navy. This little boy's 
father and mother, being good Christians, had 
taught him carefully to pray to God every 
morning and evening ; and had told him to be 
sure and do this wherever he might go. 

When the little fellow went on board the 
great ship, he found himself surrounded by a 
large company of other boys. Some of them 
were older, and some younger than himself. 
They were cadets and midshipmen, who were 
to be his companions, and who were very fond 
of fun and play, as boys generally are. He 
got along with them very well till the time 
came to go to bed, in the evening. A bell 
was rung as a signal for the boys to go 
to their berths, as the beds are called on ship- 
board. The boys were laughing and talking 
and playing tricks of various kinds, while get- 
ting undressed, George, as our little friend 
was named, looked round to see if none of 
them kneeled down to pray, before going to 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 307 

bed, but not one of them did so. He remem- 
bered what he had been taught at home ; he 
thought how God had taken care of him all the 
day, how only He could preserve him through 
the night, and he felt that he could not go to 
bed without prayer. Then the temptation 
occurred to him ; " but can't I pray as heartily 
when lying in my bed, as if I should kneel 
down to pray ? and then, the boys won't laugh 
at me." But, then, the thought occurred, that 
it would please his mother better, if he should 
kneel down to pray ; and a better thought still, 
came into his mind, that it would please God. 
This decided him. He knelt down to pray. Im- 
mediately all the thoughtless boys around began 
to laugh at him. One called him a Methodist ; 
another said, he was the parson. One, threw a 
book at him ; another, threw a pillow at him. 
But the little fellow still knelt on till he had fin- 
ished his prayer. The next night, he was inter- 
rupted in the same way ; and so it continued, 
night after night. And yet the brave little 
fellow would kneel down, and offer his prayers 
to God. He never complained of the conduct 



308 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

of the boys. But, some one else, about the 
ship, found out how the boys were behaving 
in their cabin, at night, and went and told the 
captain. 

Now, it happened, that the captain was a 
good, pious man, and he resolved to put a stop 
to the bad conduct of the boys. The next day 
he had all the boys called up before him on the 
deck of the ship. Then he called George up 
to him, and said : 

" Well, my little fellow, have you any com- 
plaint to make of the conduct of these boys ?" 

" No, sir," said George. 

" Now, boys," said the captain, " George will 
tell no tales, and make no complaints ; but 
I have heard how you have been teasing and 
persecuting him at night, because he had the 
courage to kneel down and pray to that God 
who takes care of him. I have only this to 
say ; if any of you shall dare to do this again, 
I'll have you tied up on deck, and try how you 
like the taste of a rope's end on your back. 
Now go to your duties." 

All the boys felt guilty. They would hardly 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 309 

speak to George during the rest of the day. 
But, when evening came again, George knelt 
down as usual, to pray. There was no laughing, 
or talking. They were all as still as mice. 
George had not been kneeling long, before he 
felt something at his side coming close up 
to him. He looked round to see what it was. 
and found one of the little boys who was 
nestling close up to him, that he too might say 
his prayers in peace and quietness. Presently 
another came, and then another, till at last 
quite a number were found kneeling round 
him. These boys had all been taught to pray 
at home ; but, when they were surrounded by 
rude, mocking boys, they had not courage 
enough to do what was right, by acknowledg- 
ing their dependence on God, before their 
companions. But the influence of George's 
example, when he quietly and bravely took his 
stand, determined to do right himself, what- 
ever others did, encouraged them to do so too. 
From that time prayer was never neglected on 
board that ship, while even those who did not 
pray themselves, were afraid or ashamed to 



310 THE. SAFE COMPASS. 

laugh or mock at those who did. In this way 
little George was very useful to his young com- 
panions, by the example which he set them. We 
should " gather up the fragments" of usefulness, 
that lie around us, by setting a good example. 
We may be useful by our words, as well as 
by our example ; and we should " gather up the 
fragments," by improving every opportunity 
that offers of doing good in this way. 

" Sir," said an old man, one day, to a minis- 
ter, " would you like to know how I, an old 
gray-headed sinner, was led to become a Chris- 
tian ?" 

" Yes, sir," replied the minister ; " I should 
like very well to hear it." 

" Well, sir, I was walking along the street, 
one day, and met a little boy. The little fel- 
low stepped up to me, and made a polite bow, 
and said, in a kind, gentle way, 'Please sir, 
will you take a tract, and please, sir, will you 
read it?' 

" Now, I had always hated tracts ; and when 
anybody offered them to me, I used to get 
angry, and swear dreadfully at them. But 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 311 

that ' please, sir/ overcame me. I could not 
swear at that gentlemanly little fellow, with 
his kind spoken, ' please, sir : ? no, no. So I 
took the tract, and thanked the little boy for 
it. I promised him I'd read it ; and I did 
read it, and the reading of it was a great 
blessing to me. It led me to see that I was a 
sinner. It showed me that Jesus Christ is the 
only Saviour. It was the means of making me 
a Christian. That ' please, sir/ was the key 
that unlocked my hard, old heart." That 
little boy was gathering up the fragments of 
usefulness. He was trying to do good by his 
words. 

Sometimes, there is wonderful power in a 
few, simple words, to do good, even though 
they are spoken by a child. 

Some years ago, there was a man in Scot- 
land, whose name was James Stirling. He 
had been an honest, industrious man, and lived 
happily with his family. But, in an evil hour, 
he learned to love strong drink. He became 
a drunkard. Then, poverty, and want, and 
misery, came into his little cottage. His poor 



312 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

wife was a good, pious woman. She struggled 
hard, working day and night, to support her 
family. Through years of grief and sorrow, 
she labored on, still hoping, and praying that 
God would turn her husband from his evil ways, 
and make him a sober man again. At last, 
her prayer was heard. Her husband gave up 
drinking. He signed the temperance pledge. 
Then their home was happy again. James 
Stirling became a great temperance man, and 
was the means of saving hundreds of his coun- 
trymen from going down to a drunkard's grave. 
But how was this change brought about ? Let 
me tell you. 

Stirling's faithful wife had always been in 
the habit of having family prayers with her 
children, when her husband was absent. One 
night, she sat down, with a heavy heart, and 
her eyes full of tears, to read the Bible to her 
children, and to pray with them. What fol- 
lows, I must tell you in James Stirling's own 
language : 

" I had been out all day at the tavern, and 
at night, when I came home, my wife, as usual, 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 313 

was reading a chapter to the children. I en- 
tered the door as she was so engaged, slipping 
in, like a condemned criminal. The portion 
of Scripture read, was the twenty-fifth of Mat- 
thew, m which these words occur : ' When the 
Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all 
the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit 
upon the throne of His glory ; and before Him 
shall be gathered all nations ; and He shall 
separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
divideth the sheep from the goats ; and He 
shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the 
goats on His left.' Our youngest boy, then 
about four years old, was lying with his head 
on his mother's lap ; and just when she read 
those awful words, he looked up, earnestly, 
into her face, and asked, ' Mother, ivill father 
be a goat, then P 

" This was more than I could stand. The 
earnest, innocent look of the poor child, the 
astonishment of the poor mother, and above all, 
the question itself, went right to my heart. I 
never slept a wink all that night. I felt that I 
would rather die, than go on living as I had 
27 



314 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

been living. I resolved, that night, that with 
the help of God, all the men on earth should 
never tempt me to drink intoxicating liquor 
again." 

And, the resolution that James Stirling 
made that night, he kept for thirty years, when 
he died beloved and honored by all who knew 
him. Only think how much good was done by 
the short, simple question of that little child ! 

When we try to " gather up the fragments" 
of usefulness, we cannot tell how much good 
may spring from the least thing we do. A 
minister was making an address at a meeting, 
one day. He was urging all the people to try 
and make themselves useful. Among the per- 
sons present, he saw a plain working-man, 
standing with a little girl in his arms. The 
speaker was urging the importance of our try- 
ing to do good, in every way in our power. 
" Everybody has some influence, even to that 
child," said he, pointing to the little girl in her 
father's arms. " That's true !" cried the man, 
forgetting, for a moment, where he was. After 
the meeting was over, he stepped up to the 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 315 

minister, and said : " I beg your pardon, sir. I 
didn't intend to interrupt you in your address, 
but I couldn't help speaking. Not long ago, 
sir, I was a drunkard ; but, as I didn't like to 
go to the tavern alone, I used to carry this 
dear child with me. As I came near the house 
one night, hearing a great noise inside, she 
said, ' Don't go, father.' ' Hold your tongue," 
child,' I said. ' Oh, please, father, don't go ! 
' Hold your tongue,' I said, again, shaking her 
rudely. She said no more. But, presently, I 
felt the big, warm tears, falling on my cheek. 
I couldn't go a step farther, sir. I turned 
round and went home. I have never been to 
the tavern since. By the help of God, I 
never mean to go again. I am a happy 
man now, sir ; and my family are all happy. 
This dear child has done it all ; and when 
you said, even she has influence, I couldn't 
help saying, ' that's true.' All have influ- 
ence." 

Now let us see, how many kinds of frag- 
ments have we spoken of, altogether ? Four. 
Yes. What are they ? Fragments of time ; 



316 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

fragments of knowledge ; fragments of money; 
and fragments of usefulness. 

Well, let us all resolve to be earnest and 
diligent in trying to gather up these different 
fragments. The least, and the youngest of us, 
may find enough to do in this way. Don't say, 
" Oh, I'm too little ; I can't do anything !" 
Nobody is too little to " gather up fragments." 
Fragments are little things, and little people 
are just the ones to gather them. If you pick 
up a tiny pebble, not bigger than the end of 
your little finger, and throw it into a pond, you 
know how it will make a circular ripple on its 
smooth surface, that will go on, getting wider 
and wider, till at last it reaches the shore. 
And just so, when we try to do good, in any of 
the ways we have been speaking of, the frag- 
ment that we gather, of time, or knowledge, or 
money, or usefulness, like the ripple on the 
pond, may spread itself out for good to all who 
are round about us. If we ever expect to be 
good, or great, we must begin by being good 
and great in little things. The great Acade- 
my of Music, in Broad-street, was built by just 



MONEY AND USEFULNESS. 317 

laying one brick upon another. The great 
pyramids, in Egypt, which are like young 
mountains, were made by laying one stone upon 
another. Oh. gather up the fragments, then. 
Begin to do good in a small way, and others 
will soon opeu before you. 

I will close my sermon by repeating some 
sweet, simple lines, which I met with the other 
day. They are just the thing for those who 
want to begin to be fragment gatherers. They 
are entitled : 

LITTLE DEEDS. 

" Not mighty deeds make up the sum 
Of happiness below, 
But little acts of kindliness, 
"Which any child may show. 

A merry sound, to cheer the babe, 

And tell a friend is near ; 
A word of ready sympathy, 

To dry the childish fear, — 

A glass of water, kindly brought ; 

An offered easy chair ; 
A turning of the window blind, 

That all may feel the air ; 

27* 



318 THE SAFE COMPASS. 

An early flower, unasked, bestowed ; 

A light and cautious tread ; 
A voice to gentlest whisper hushed. 

To spare the aching head; 

Oh, deeds like these, though little things, 

Yet, purest love disclose, 
As fragrant perfume on the air 

Reveals the hidden rose. 

Our Heavenly Father loves to see 
These precious fruits of love ; 

And if we only serve Him here, 
We'll dwell with Him above." 




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Care. By Mrs. Sbwell, 40 

Little Crowns, and How to Win Them. 

By the Eev. Joseph A. Colliee. 18mo, - - - - 60 

" This is a gem of a book. By the use of simple language, 
and abundant illustrations, he has made his successive dis- 
courses not only instructing, but fascinating. It is a model 
book for Sabbath Schools." — Evangelist. 



CARTERS JUVENILE BOOKS. 



Margaret Warner, ismo, o go 

''We huve rarely met with so charming a volume as this, 
the authorship of which is attributed to a lady of hiirh emi- 
nence, but whose heart must have had sympathies with those 
in the humbler walks of life, or she could not have so skill- 
fully touched their emotions or portrayed their virtues." — 
Commercial Advertiser. 

The Torn Bible, ismo, o eo 

" A capital book for the young, and just the book to be sent 
to the army. It is a story of a British soldier in India, his sad 
life, his wounds, sickness, and conversion. The story turns 
on his mother's Bible, which saved his life, and his soul too." 
— New York Observer. 

Bertie Lee. 18mo. 4 engravings. 50 

" We rarely meet with a book of this kind designed for 
children and youth, at once so simple and natural in its con- 
struction, so "illustrative of the beauty of filial obedience, 
and so rich in lessons of truth and wisdom, as this little un- 
pretending volume." — Standard. 

Ton j Starr's Legacy. By the Author of « win 

and Wear." - - 60 

"Tony is a veritable boy, neither worse nor better than 
others of the genus. He is well nigh spoiled for a time, 
but at length develops into an upright, generous man- 
hood, thereby abundantly rewarding his kind nurses and 
furnishing material for a narrative not only thoroughly 
religious, but full of truth, freshness and common sense." — 
Springfield Republican. 

Broad Shadows on Life's Pathway. 

A Tale. By the Author of " Doing and Suffering." - -0 6) 

Day Break ; or, Right Struggling and 

Triumphant. 60 

"Little Maud Temperley has a bad temper to manage. 
She has many temptations, and at first but little help. Fin- 
ally, through the instrumentality of a pious young lady who 
loves children and is ever trying to do them good, she 
becomes a Christian." — Ch. Times. 

Little Walter of Wyalusing. ismo. . $o so 



CARTERS JUVENILE BOOKS. 



ksw a. l. ®. s. bqqrs. 



The Bebel Reclaimed, ismo, - - - - $o 60 
The Crown of Success ; or, Four Heads 

to Furnish. ISnio. - - - - - - - - -0 60 

The Robber's Cave, o eo 

War and Peace : a Tale of the Retreat 

from Caubul, - - • 60 

The Cottage by the Stream, ismo, - - o 30 

Ned Manton, 60 

My Neighbor's Shoes; or, Feeling for 

Others.^ ISmo. Four engravings, ... - 40 

The Broken Chain, and other Stories 

on the Parables. ISmo. Six cuts, 40 

The Black Cliff, and other Stories on 

The Parables. ISmo. Six cuts, 40 

Stories on the Parables ; being the last 

two in one volume. Twelve cuts, - - 60 

The Lost Jewel. A very interesting 

Story. Six engravings, 60 

The Shepherd of Bethlehem, King of 

Israel. 18mo. Six engravings, 60 

""We would rather be A. L. O. E. than Thackeray <>r Dickens. "Who 
shall undertake even to guess how many minds on both sides of the 
Atlantic have received permanent impulses in tho paths of Virtue, 
through The influences of the charming books which have appeared under 
this authorship V—Ch. Times. 



ATTRACTIVE AND USEFUL BOOKS 

J'OK THE YOUNG-. 



| Ministering Children. A Tale for the Young. Il- 
lustrated with 20 fine Engravings. 12mo ... .$1 25 
j England's Yeomen ■ from Life in the Nineteenth 
Century. By the author of " Ministering Chil- 
dren." With Steel Frontispiece and Vignette. 
12mo 1 25 

Sunday Afterno >ns in the Nursery. By the au- 
thor ©f" Ministering Children.." 12 cuts. Sq. 60 

A Shepherd's Call to the Lambs of the Flock. 
By the Rev. C. W. Bolton. Square, 6 cuts ... 060 

Tender Grass for Little Lambs. Square 60 

Limed i wigs to Catch Young Birds 60 

Tli j Pilgrim's Progress. By Jofix Bunyan. I\- 
lustrated with Twenty Large Plates by Thomas. 
Quarto, cloth 1 50 

Do. do. 12mo, with 36 Portraits of the Prominent 

Characters 1 25 

New Cobwebs to Catch Flies. Square. Cuts. . . 60 
Child's Own Story Book. By Mrs. Jerram. 

Square lftmo 60 

j Hymns for Infant Minds 40 

, The Christian Philosopher. By John Dick, LL.D. 

New Edition. 70 Engravings 1 25 

i Evening Hours with My Children ; or. Conversa- 
tions on the Gospel Story. Quarto. 12 large 
Engravings 90 

i Mamma's Bible Stories. Colored Plates. Square 60 

I Sequel to Mamma's Bible Stories. Colored Plates. 

Square 60 

i Rills from the Fountain of Life. By the Rev. Dr. 

i Newton 90 



CARTERS JUVENILE BOOKS. 



Little Lessons for Little Learners $0 GO 

Rhymes for the Nursery. Colored Plates 60 

A Hundred Short Tales. By the author of the 

" Basket of Flowers." Square 60 

The Sheepfold and the Common. "With Sixteen 

Fine Engravings 1 25 

Think Before You Act. Square 30 

Duty is Safety " 30 

Jack the Sailor Boy " 30 

Clever Stories. (Containing the above.) 60 

Very Little Tales for Very Little Children. First 

Series 45 

Do. do. Second Series 45 

Little Annie's First Book 45 

Little Annie's Second Book 45 

"Watts' Divine and Moral Songs, Fine Cuts. 

Square 40 

Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life. By Prof. 

Wilson. Illustrated 75 

Shades of Character ; or, the Young Pilgrim. By 

Miss Woodruffe • 1 00 

The Footsteps of St. Paul 1 25 

English Hearts and English Hands 90 

The Victory Won. 18mo, 30 

A Light for the Line. 18mo, 30 i 

Vara; or, The Child of Adoption. Illustrated. 

12mo 1 28 1 

Nellie of Truro. 12mo 1 25 j 

The Julia. 12mo ■. 1 25 

Modern Accomplishments and Society. By Mi6s 

Sinclair 1 25 ; 

Sorrowing Yet Rejoicing. A True Narrat've. ... 40 i 
| Evenings with John Bunyan , .at 00 , 



